June 12, 2002
Complications
Question from Alexandria, Egypt:
My husband, who has had type 2 diabetes for only two weeks, had urine albumin/creatinine ratio of 115 mg/g creatinine. He repeated the test the next day in another lab and the urine albumin was 16 mg/l with a urinary creatinine of 112 mg/dl. Does he have microalbuminuria for sure? If so, what should we do?
Answer:
If my math is correct the result is 14.2 mg/g creatinine. The threshold for an abnormal response is greater than 30 mg/g creatinine. Patients can have false positive microalbumin results as a result of increased dietary protein intake, high blood sugar, vigorous exercise, and it can be acutely decreased with the use of specific blood pressure medications. I would suggest your husband have another specimen taken in the near future to determine the trend.
JTL
