ABSTRACT
1. Renal involvement in non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus patients is the single most important cause of renal failure. The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical features and to assess the risk factors for the development of proteinuria by non-insulin dependent diabetic patients. 2. Risk factors (expressed as an odds ratio) were calculated by multiple logistic regression analysis taking into account age, sex, body mass index, known duration of diabetes, presence of arterial hypertension, fasting plasma glucose, cholesterol and triglycerides as independent variables and proteinuria as the dependent variable. Sixty-four normoalbuminuric (24-h albumin excretion rate < 30 micrograms/min, 27 females, mean age 53.7 years) and 53 proteinuric (24-h proteinuria > 0.5 g, 31 females, mean age 59.3 years) were studied. 3. Proteinuric patients were older, with a longer mean known duration of diabetes (12.4 vs 5.6 years), higher mean fasting plasma glucose (214 vs 168 mg/dl) and plasma creatinine (1.5 vs 1.1 mg/dl) and more frequently presented diabetic retinopathy (94 per cent vs 23 per cent ), peripheral neuropathy (94 per cent vs 23 per cent ) and arterial hypertension (73 per cent vs 16 per cent ) than normoalbuminuric patients. Age > 50 years, body mass index > 28.6 kg/m2, known duration of diabetes > 10 years, presence of arterial hypertension, and fasting plasma glucose > 160 mg/dl were significantly and independently associated with development of proteinuria