Urinary alpha 1-microglobulin as an index of proximal tubular function in early infancy.

Urinary alpha 1-microglobulin (U-A1M) was measured in healthy term infants on days 1, 4, 7, 14, 28, 90 and 180 of life. U-A1M was high until day 14 and declined thereafter. It was significantly correlated with urinary beta 2-microglobulin (U-B2M) throughout the study, but not with serum A1M on days 1 or 7. Similar to U-B2M, U-A1M in the clinically stable term infants with intrauterine growth retardation (n = 4-7) was not elevated on days 1-7. In the sick infants who needed immediate resuscitation at birth (n = 4-8), U-A1M was well as U-B2M was high on days 1-7 and then decreased to normal levels, suggesting that U-A1M can be used as a sensitive marker of acute proximal tubular damage and its recovery. These observations indicate that U-A1M is a useful index of proximal tubular function in early infancy.