Occurrence of microalbuminuria among children and adolescents with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus.

Microalbuminuria precedes the onset of diabetic nephropathy in insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) pediatric patients. Its prevention is among the most important challenges in managing IDDM. We attempted to determine the occurrence of microalbuminuria among IDDM Saudi children and adolescents and its associated risk factors. This is a retrospective cross-sectional study conducted on 409 IDDM children and adolescents attending the pediatric clinic at King Abdul-Aziz University Hospital from 2006 to 2010. Their ages ranged from 1 to 18 years and the mean ± standard deviation (mean ± SD) was 12.3 ± 4.1 years. Twenty-four-hour urinary albumin excretion (on two separate occasions or more, 3 - 6 months apart each), HbA1c, duration of IDDM, Tanner staging and body mass index (BMI) were reviewed. Prevalence of microalbuminuria in our cohort was 11.3%. IDDM duration was ≥2 years in 55.8% of our patients; of them, 15.6% had microalbuminuria while 45.2% had IDDM duration <2 years (6% had microalbuminuria) (P <0.01). The prevalence of microalbuminuria was higher among the post-pubertal subjects (50%) than that among the pre-pubertal (8.7%) and pubertal (41.5%) subjects. Furthermore, microalbuminuria was present in 16.7% of those with elevated blood pressure, but only in 8.5% among those with normal blood pressure (P <0.05). The enrolled overweight and obese subjects showed a higher prevalence of microalbuminuria (14%) when compared with that among those with a normal BMI (6.6%) (P <0.05). In our cohort, duration of IDDM, pubertal status, hypertension and BMI affected the prevalence of microalbuminuria. Annual screening for microalbuminuria in IDDM children and adolescents is imperative.