Urinary Albumin Excretion in Normal Subjects and in Diabetic Patients Measured by an Enzymeimmunoassay: Methodological and Clinical Aspects

Authors: Şerif AKMAN, Levent KARACA

Abstract: We have developed an enzymeimmunoassay (EIA) method to measure urinary albumin excretion. The albumin excretion rate (AER) (µg/min) of 93 healthy subjects and 116 diabetic patients (64 type l, 52 type ll) was determined. The validation results indicate that the EIA is a useful diagnostic tool. About 65 % of the diabetic patients lay within the normal range. The other 35% could be considered Òat riskÓ to develop overt diabetic nephropathy because their albuminuria exceeded a threshold level of 15 µg/min, chosen previously as the cutoff value for microalbuminuria. The AER of the normoalbuminuric type l and type ll diabetic patients was significantly higher than that of the controls (P<0.01), but the data between the two groups of diabetics did not differ. The mean AER of microalbuminuric type I patients also did not differ significantly from that found in microalbuminuric type II diabetics. There is a weak correlation between the duration of diabetes and AER in type I diabetic patients, but no such relationship exist between glycated hemoglobin and AER values in these patients.

Keywords: Microalbuminuria, albumin excretion rate, diabetic nephropathy, diabetes mellitus, enzymeimmunoassay