Description
Diabetic nephropathy is a complication of diabetes and is characterized by proteinuria (normal urinary albumin excretion is <30 mg/day; overt proteinuria is >300 mg/day). Before overt proteinuria develops, albumin excretion increases in those diabetic patients who are destined to develop diabetic nephropathy. Therapeutic manoeuvres (eg, aggressive blood pressure maintenance, particularly with angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors; aggressive blood sugar control; and possibly decreased protein intake) can significantly delay, or possibly prevent, development of nephropathy. Thus, there is a need to identify small, but abnormal, increases in the excretion of urinary albumin (in the range of 30-300 mg/day, ie, microalbuminuria).
This high sensitivity test to measure levels of Albumin in an urine sample.