Chronic kidney disease coexists with metabolic syndrome and this relationship may be apparent before overt manifestations of cardiovascular disease. To investigate early stages of the natural history of associations between renal function and metabolic syndrome, we phenotyped 1572 young (mean age=18.4 years), apparently healthy men for metabolic risk factors and estimated their creatinine clearance based on the Cockcroft-Gault equation. High metabolic risk (clustering of at least three metabolic risk factors) was revealed in 8.7% (137) of the subjects and was associated with a 6.9-fold increase in the odds of glomerular hyperfiltration (95% confidence interval (CI): 3.9-11.5) when compared to reference (from none to two metabolic risk factors). Overweight, elevated blood pressure, and low high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol increased the multivariate-adjusted odds ratio of glomerular hyperfiltration to 6.6 (95% CI: 3.8-11.6), 1.8 (95% CI: 1.0-3.0), and 2.5 (95% CI: 1.5-4.3), respectively. Systolic and diastolic blood pressures clustered together with leptin in the factor analysis and this blood pressure-adiposity component correlated with estimated creatinine clearance (r=0.329, P<0.0001) and explained on its own 10.2% of the variance in the estimated renal function. Our data reveal the silent epidemics of metabolic risk among young, apparently healthy men. Furthermore, the results indicate that high metabolic risk is associated with glomerular hyperfiltration before overt manifestations of cardiovascular disease.

Abstract. Diabetic nephropathy may be effectively prevented and treated by controlling glycemia and administering angiotensinconverting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors. However, strict metabolic control can be difficult, and ACE inhibitors may be poorly tolerated and only partially effective, particularly in diabetes mellitus type 2 (DM2), warranting the search for ancillary treatment. Sulodexide is a glycosaminoglycan, a new class of drug that has demonstrated nephroprotective activity in experimental investigations. The Di.N.A.S. study was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicenter, dose-range finding trial to evaluate the extent and duration of the hypoalbuminuric effect of oral sulodexide in diabetic patients. A total of 223 microalbuminuric and macroalbuminuric DM1 and DM2 patients with serum creatinine Յ150 mol/L and stable BP and metabolic control were recruited. They were randomly allocated to one of four groups: 50 mg/d, 100 mg/d, or 200 mg/d sulodexide daily or placebo for 4 mo (T0 to T4), with 4 mo of follow-up after drug suspension (T4 to T8). Treatment with 200 mg/d sulodexide for 4 mo significantly reduced log albumin excretion rate (logAER) from 5.25 Ϯ 0.18 at T0 to 3.98 Ϯ 0.11 at T4 (P Ͻ 0.05), which was maintained till T8 (4.11 Ϯ 0.13; P Ͻ 0.05 versus T0). Moreover, the sulodexideinduced percent reductions in AER at T4 were significantly different from the placebo value at T4 and approximately linear to dose increments (30% [confidence limits, 4 to 49%], P ϭ 0.03; 49% [30 to 63%], P ϭ 0.0001; and 74% [64 to 81%], P ϭ 0.0001 in the sulodexide 50, 100, and 200 mg/d groups, respectively. At T8, the sulodexide 200 mg/d group maintained a 62% (45 to 73%) AER significant reduction versus placebo (P ϭ 0.0001). Subanalysis by type of diabetes (DM1 versus DM2, microalbuminuric versus macroalbuminuric, or on concomitant ACE inhibitors versus not on ACE inhibitors) demonstrated similar findings. These effects were obtained without any significant variation in metabolic control and BP or serum creatinine. Very few adverse events were reported; none were serious. In conclusion, a 4-mo course of high doses of sulodexide significantly and dose-dependently improves albuminuria in DM1 and DM2 patients and micro-or macroalbuminuric patients with or without concomitant ACE inhibition. The effect on albuminuria is long-lasting and seemingly additive to the ACE inhibitory effect.Diabetes is the most common cause of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) in Western countries. In the United States, diabetes currently accounts for 44% of all new cases of ESRD (1). Despite advances in clinical care, the incidence of diabetes mellitus type 2 (DM2)-related cases of ESRD is rapidly increasing (2), and survival of DM-related ESRD patients on dialysis is markedly low (3,4).The anatomic hallmarks of diabetic nephropathy (DN) include thickening of the glomerular basement membrane (GBM) and mesangial expansion with hyalinosis both in the mesangium and capillary lumen. These lesions lead to glomerular fibrosis, which progressiv...

Clinical Diabetology (ISSN 2450-7458) is published six times a year by "Via Medica sp. z o.o." sp.k.

Self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG) in type 2 diabetes has increasingly been shown to display beneficial effects on glycemic control. SMBG is not only associated with a reduction of hemoglobin A1c but has also been demonstrated to increase patients' awareness of the disease. SMBG has also the potential to visualize and predict hypoglycemic episodes. International guidelines by the International Diabetes Federation, the European Society of Cardiology, and the European Association for the Study of Diabetes and also the International Society for Pediatric and Adolescent Diabetes emphasize that SMBG is an integral part of self-management. More recently, two European consensus documents have been published to give recommendations for frequency and timing of SMBG also for various clinical scenarios. Recently, a European expert panel was held to further facilitate and enhance standardized approaches to SMBG. The aim was to present simple, clinically meaningful, and standardized SMBG strategies for type 2 diabetes. The panel recommended a less intensive and an intensive scheme for SMBG across the type 2 diabetes continuum. The length and frequency of SMBG performance depend on the clinical circumstances and the quality of glycemic control. The expert panel also recommended further evaluation of various schemes for SMBG in type 2 diabetes in clinical studies.

No abstract

Objective-This study was undertaken to evaluate to what extent C-reactive protein (CRP) can be reduced by exercise by examining its circulating concentrations in male ultramarathon runners and to determine if low leptin as a robust circulating marker of fat mass could account for low CRP in such men. Methods and Results-Sixty-seven male ultramarathon runners and 63 sedentary male controls of similar age and body mass index were recruited. CRP and leptin were measured by ELISA and radioimmunoassay, respectively. Median CRP concentration in lean (body mass index Ͻ25 kg/m 2 ) marathon runners was less than half control median (0. Circulating leptin levels were also substantially lower in lean (45% less) and nonlean (63% less, both PϽ0.0001) ultramarathon runners. However, interleukin-6 levels were not different. Furthermore, leptin adjustment only minimally attenuated the case-control difference in CRP, suggesting that mechanisms other than fat mass reduction contribute to low concentrations of CRP in marathon runners. Conclusions-This

Objective-Males are at higher risk of cardiovascular diseases than females. The aim of the study was to test whether the potential of the Y chromosome to affect cardiovascular risk could be attributed to its influence on lipids. Methods and Results-1288 Polish men (1157 subjects from young healthy cohort and 131 individuals from middle-aged hypertensive population) were phenotyped for determinants of cardiovascular risk including BMI, blood pressures, lipids, and testosterone. Each subject was genotyped for the HindIII(ϩ/Ϫ) polymorphism within the nonrecombining region of the Y chromosome. Men with the HindIII(Ϫ) variant exhibited significantly higher total cholesterol (TC) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL) levels than subjects with the HindIII(ϩ) genotype in both populations. The differences between the genotypes were 0.

OBJECTIVE -In patients with clinical hemochromatosis, the frequency of diabetes ranges from 20 to 50%, and the heterozygosity for the C282Y mutation in the HFE gene might be associated with an increased risk for diabetes. There are also some reports that suggest that iron overload might cause diabetic nephropathy.RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS -We performed an association study to assess the role of the C282Y and H63D mutations in the HFE gene as a risk factor for type 2 diabetes and diabetic nephropathy. Altogether, 563 patients with type 2 diabetes were included in the study. In the analyzed group, 108 patients had overt proteinuria, 154 had microalbuminuria, and 301 had normoalbuminuria. Among the patients with normoalbuminuria, only those with known diabetes duration Ն10 years were considered normoalbuminuric (n ϭ 162). A total of 196 unrelated healthy subjects were used as a control group. All subjects were genotyped for C282Y and H63D using the polymerase chain reaction-based protocol.RESULTS -There was an increased frequency of 282Y allele carriers among patients with type 2 diabetes versus healthy control subjects (OR 5.3, 95% CI 1.6 -17.3). We observed an increased frequency of the 63D allele carriers among patients with diabetic nephropathy (1.8, 1.2-2.8).CONCLUSIONS -In conclusion, our study is the first to indicate that being a carrier of the H63D hemochromatosis mutation is a risk factor for nephropathy in type 2 diabetic patients. We also confirmed previous observations that the frequency of the 282Y mutation was higher in patients with type 2 diabetes than it was in the general population of healthy subjects.