Clinical significance of detecting serum cystatin C in patients with diabetic nephropathy

Objective To investigate the clinical significance of detecting serum cystatin C(Cys-C) in patients with diabetic nephropathy.Methods On the basis of 24-h urinary albumin excretion(UAE),80 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus(T2DM) were divided into two groups of A(36 cases with UAE30 mg/L) and B(44 cases with UAE 30-300 mg/L).Another 30 healthy people were taken as the controls(group C).Serum levels of Cys-C and creatinine(SCr) were detected with latex-enhanced immune serum projected nephelometry detection and automatic biochemical analyzer.Results Serum levels of Cys-C and SCr were(0.95±0.46) mg/L and(95.54±16.21) μmol/L in group A,which were lower than(1.14±0.73) mg/L and(101.42 ± 13.46) μmol/L in group B(P0.05).Serum levels of Cys-C and SCr were higher in groups of B and A than(0.63±0.07) mg/L and(55.54±10.05) μmol/L in group C(P0.05).The positive detection rates of serum Cys-C and SCr were lower in group A than those in group B(19.44% vs.40.91% and 2.78% vs.9.09%)(P0.05).The positive detection rate of serum Cys-C was significantly higher than that of SCr in groups of B and A(P0.05).Conclusion Serum level of Cys-C is remarkably elevated in the patients with diabetic nephropathy.Detection of serum Cys-C is better than that of SCr in the early diagnosis of diabetic nephropathy.