Effect of exercise on urinary N-acetyl-beta-D-glucosaminidase activity and albumin excretion in children with type I diabetes mellitus.

Urinary N-acetyl-beta-D-glucosaminidase (NAG), a proximal tubule lysosomal enzyme, has been used as an indicator of subtle renal injury. Since it has been positively and significantly correlated with hemoglobin A1c and microalbuminuria, it has been suggested that this enzyme may also reflect metabolic control. Albumin excretion is exacerbated in adult diabetic individuals during exercise; such exercise-induced albuminuria may be a forerunner of diabetic nephropathy. Metabolic control, degree of exertion, and duration of diabetes have been suggested to influence this increase in albuminuria during exercise. Studies of children are few and have produced inconsistent results. Thus we studied 28 insulin-dependent diabetic children ranging in age from 5 yr to 16 yr and 27 age-matched controls using treadmill exercise; two exercise periods consisting of (1) graded increases in speed and grade at 3-min intervals until exhaustion and (2) a constant speed and grade necessary to produce 2/3-3/4 maximal heart rate for 30 min were performed. Capillary blood glucose, urinary NAG/creatinine (cr) ratios (UNAG/Ucr) and urinary albumin/creatinine ratio (Ualb/Ucr) were measured before and after each exercise period; hemoglobin A1c was also measured. The latter averaged 11.8 +/- 0.6% (mean +/- SEM); contrary to previous studies, this was not correlated with pre- or postexercise UNAG/Ucr. During both exercise periods, blood glucose dropped 271 +/- 19 mg/dl to 213 +/- 21 mg/dl (period 1) and 230 +/- 22 mg/dl to 157 +/- 21 mg/dl (period 2).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)