Does albuminuria predict renal risk and/or cardiovascular risk in obese type 2 diabetic patients?

Increased urinary albumin excretion (UAE) is a marker of renal and cardiovascular risk in patients with type 2 diabetes (DT2). What about the obese patient with DT2? Does albuminuria predict the progression of renal disease and/or cardiovascular disease? The objective of this study is to determine the link between albuminuria, renal risk and cardiovascular risk in a cohort of obese DT2 patients. This is a prospective study begun in September 2006. It included DT2 patients presenting obesity defined by a body mass index (BMI)>30 Kg/m(2). Three groups of patients were defined: normo-albuminuria (Urinary Albumin Excretion UAE<30 mg/day or Albumin Creatinine Ratio ACR<30 mg/g), micro-albuminuria (UAE=30-300 mg/day or ACR=30-300 mg/g) and macro-albuminuria (UAE>300 mg/day or ACR>300 mg/g). Data on 144 obese DT2 patients were compiled: The mean age of our patients was 59 ± 9 years and the sex ratio 0.26. The incidence of ESRD was higher in the macro-albuminuria group than in the two other groups (26.5% vs. 1.2%, p<0.001). The incidence of cardiovascular events was 15.4%, 14.3% and 23.5% in the normo, micro and macro-albuminuria groups (p=0.48). A history of cardiovascular comorbidities was the main cardiovascular risk in multivariate analysis (0R=15.07; 95% CI=5.30-42.82; p<0.001) and the low admission GFR (0R=5.67; 95% CI=1.23-9.77; p=0.008) was the main factor for progression of kidney disease in multivariate analysis. Albuminuria may be a better marker of kidney disease progression than of cardiovascular risk in the obese DT2 patient, according to our results. However, to accurately demonstrate the link albuminuria - renal risk and albuminuria - cardiovascular risk in the obese DT2 patient, additional studies using very strict criteria of selection and judgment are needed.