Microalbumin
Each year in the United States, nearly 80,000 people are diagnosed with kidney failure, a serious condition in which the kidneys fail to rid the body of waste. 1 Diabetes is the most common cause of kidney failure, accounting for more than 40% of all new cases. 2 About 17 million people in the United States (6.2% of the population) have diabetes, and about 100,000 people have kidney failure as a result of diabetes. 3
This is in spite of the fact that it’s one of the most preventable of all the devastating complications of diabetes. The key is early detection. If it’s detected in the earliest stages, kidney dysfunction can be stopped or reversed with treatment. The best way to ensure early detection of kidney dysfunction is by doing a urine test that measures the level of a protein called microalbumin. 4 When kidneys are functioning properly, no albumin (a protein present in blood) is allowed to leak through into the urine. 4 In kidney failure, large amounts of protein or albumin are spilled into the urine. Well before this amount of damage happens, small changes in the blood-filtering parts of the kidney allow very small amounts of albumin to leak through. This condition is called microalbuminuria. 4 The test that measures this very small amount of albumin is called microalbumin. 4
HHLA can perform microalbumin testing from a random urine sample. To collect a sample for microalbumin, remove and discard the tablet (preservative) in the HHLA yellow urine tube and then fill the tube with a urine specimen. Place note on the requisition or tube that the tablet was removed from the container. Results are available the next day.
The National Kidney Foundation recommends that Type II diabetics under the age of 70 and Type I diabetics over the age of 12 be screened annually for microalbuminria. 4 In addition, microalbumin levels should be ordered when a person is first diagnosed with diabetes, in order to establish a baseline level.
The key to prevention is early detection.
1) “ The Problem of Kidney Disease”, National Kidney Foundation, www.kidney.org, last modified 04/23/03
2) National Kidney Foundation, www.diabetes.org/info/facts/facts_nephropathy.jsp
3) American Diabetes Association, www.diabetes.org/info/diabetesinfo.jsp
4) “Microalbumin” Lab Tests Online,pg 1-3, http://labtest.org/understaning/analytes/microalbumin/test.html, modified 11-06-2001