Background and objectives: Despite the beneficial effects of intensive insulin therapy, nephropathy continues to be a major concern in type 1 diabetes mellitus (DM). Given the scarce data on this subject in our population, we performed an observational study in order to analyse the prevalence of albuminuria and its stages in a series of patients with type 1 DM and to evaluate the related factors.
Patients and methods: Cross-sectional study that included all patients aged 18 and over, diagnosed of type 1 DM for at least 6 months, consecutively attended during 2008 at the Hospital del Mar de Barcelona and Hospital Granollers.
Results: 291 patients were analysed and 46 (20.2%) had micro- or macroalbuminuria. Albuminuric patients, compared to those without were older (42.0±12.3 years vs. 37.1±11.5 years), had longer duration of diabetes (22.5±11.5 years vs. 14.1±10.1 years), and higher body mass index (26.3±3.7kg/m2 vs. 25.2±3.4kg/m2), glycosylated haemoglobin (8.15±1.5% vs. 7.59±1.4%) and systolic blood pressure (139.7±21.7 mmHg vs. 122.2±20.3mmHg). Multivariate analysis showed an independent association of albuminuria with diabetes duration (OR 1.081, 95% CI 1.038-1.126), triglyceride levels (OR 1.011, 95% CI: 1.002-1.018), smoking habit (OR 3.279, CI 95%: 1.114-9.654) and hypertension (OR 3.495, 95% CI: 1.074-11.368).
Conclusion: In our series, one out of five patients with type 1 DM had micro- or macroalbuminuria, and its presence is associated with diabetes duration, triglyceride concentration, smoking and hypertension.