Microalbuminuria as a target to improve cardiovascular and renal outcomes in diabetic patients

Abstract

Microalbuminuria has been shown to be a risk factor for adverse renal and cardiovascular outcomes in patients with diabetes mellitus. This risk appears to increase with higher levels of albuminuria. There is also evidence that reducing the level of albuminuria improves these outcomes. This review focuses on the most recent advances in this area and reviews literature over the past year on this topic.

Ethnic diversity in Type 2 diabetes

“…Given this mix of favourable and unfavourable risk factors and concerns relating to the statistical power of interim analyses of the relationship between IA ethnicity and myocardial infarction [3], further assessment of data from longer follow‐up of UKPDS patients would be valuable. Such analyses are given further credence by frequent reports that microalbuminuria is an important independent cardiovascular risk factor in Type 2 diabetes [26] and the finding that IA ethnicity was an independent predictor of albuminuria in the UKPDS [5].…”

Effect of renin–angiotensin–aldosterone system (RAAS) blockade on visfatin levels in diabetic nephropathy

“…Also, the presence of proteinuria is an important predictor of endothelial dysfunction in early diabetic nephropathy regardless of the degree of renal dysfunction 4 . Therefore, the strategies for treating proteinuria not only protect from the progression to end‐stage renal disease but also prevent cardiovascular morbidity and mortality 5 …”