December 15, 2004
Other
Question from New Delhi, India:
I am a type 1 diabetic, age 19. In the past several months, I had a high level of triglycerides and uncontrolled hypertension. In recent blood tests, triglycerides were 417 mg/dl and microalbumin was 4.8 mg/dl. First of all, is hypertension entirely due to high triglycerides? Secondly, have my kidneys and liver been damaged irreversibly?
Answer:
Elevated triglycerides are not usually a reason to have elevated blood pressure. Second, elevated albumin excretion can be the result of poorly controlled blood sugars, extreme exercise, and can be normalized with medication. The medications that have specifically been shown to improve albumin excretion would be drugs from the class of agents known as ACE inhibitors or the angiotensin II receptor antagonists. When these latter agents are used, they may the benefit of protecting the kidneys from progressive kidney disease due to diabetes.
JTL
