Elizabeth Rosolowsky

MONDAY March 17, 2008 (Foodconsumer.org) -- Uric acid in the blood may be a better indicator than albumin in the urine for the loss of kidney function in type 1 diabetes, according to a study in the May 2008 issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.

The standard screening test for diabetic kidney disease is the urine albumin level, but the new study showed increased levels of uric acid in the blood is actually a real harbinger of kidney function loss in diabetic kidney disease or nephropathy.

In the study, researchers from Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston measured the serum uric acid concentration in 675 patients with type 1 diabetes of whom 311 had small amounts of albumin in the urine while 364 had normal urine albumin levels.

"Our research showed that loss of kidney function takes place even in the absence of albuminuria in patients with type 1 diabetes," said Dr. Elizabeth T. Rosolowsky at Joslin Diabetes Center.

The researchers found no higher levels of albumin to indicate advanced diabetic nephrology while one in every five had some impairment of kidney function on a standard test known as the glomerular filtration rate.

In contrast, the serum uric acid level was consistently correlated to kidney function - the higher the uric acid level, the lower the kidney function.

The results indicated that uric acid is a better predictor for the risk of nephropathy in patients with type 1 diabetes than urine albumin.

It is not clear though whether high levels of uric acid are a risk factor or simply a biomarker for the kidney function loss.  More research needs to be done to identify the effect of uric acid in patients with type 1 diabetes.

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