Determinants of microalbuminuria in diabetics.

Several risk factors for the development of microalbuminuria such as: blood glucose unbalance, high blood pressure, dyslipidemia, genetic susceptibility have been described and discussed. The object of this study was to ascertain the importance of these factors. To this end albuminuria was measured using MICRAL-test in two groups of subjects: 100 diabetics (43 type I (insulin-dependent) and 57 type II (non insulin-dependent), and 54 controls. According to diabetes duration, the cases were divided into four sub-groups (less than 5 years; 5-9 yrs; 10-19 yrs; over 20 yrs). The mean values of albuminuria were assessed in the two groups (diabetics and controls) and also for each subgroup of diabetes duration. It was found that in insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM), the duration of the disease is an important determinant of albuminuria, a significant increase in its values being observed after 10 yrs of diabetes evolution. The importance of diabetes duration, glucose unbalance and high blood pressure (BP) as possible determinants of microalbuminuria was assessed by comparing the micro- and normoalbuminuric diabetics. Our results are similar to those reported by many other authors, showing that these are important risk factors for microalbuminuria, especially in IDDM.