The diagnostic value of serum cystatin C and urinary microalbumin in early diabetic nephropathy

Objective To evaluate the diagnostic value of serum cystatin C(Cys C) and urinary microalbumin(U-mAlb) in early diabetic nephropathy.Methods Type 2 diabetic patients included pure diabetes mellitus(DM),early diabetic nephropathy(EDN) and clinical diabetic nephropathy(DN) groups.Beckman-coulter Lx-20 automatic biochemical analyzer and IMMAGE automatic immunoturbidimetric analyzer were used to detect serum Cys C,serum creatinine(Scr) and U-mAlb respectively.Results The concentrations of serum Cys C and U-mAlb were positively correlated with the disease development in type 2 diabetic patients(P0.01).There was significant difference in the concentration of serum Cys C,which was the highest in the group of DN,and followed by the groups of END,DM and healthy controls subsequently(P0.01).There was no difference in the concentrations of mAlb between the groups of DM and healthy reference controls.However,the concentrations of mAlb were significantly increased in the groups of DN and END.The concentration of creatinine was higher in DN group than that in any other groups(P0.01).Conclusion The detection of Cys C and mAlb is very sensitive and useful for the diagnosis of DM and early renal damage.