Study of Incidence of Microalbuminuria Among First Diagnosed Diabetic Patients and its Correlation with Body Mass Index and Coexisting Hypertension in A Tertiary Care Hospital

Background: Diabetes is raising recently more in the developing countries due to sedentary life style and with increase in duration, complications arise affecting renal, retinal, cardiovascular and nervous systems. Diabetic nephropathy poses a great risk of renal failure and is the cause for performing dialysis. Microalbuminuria is the earliest marker for the renal and cardiovascular involvement. This study aims to study the incidence of microalbuminuria in first diagnosed diabetic patients and to correlate it with the body mass index (BMI), hypertension and waist hip circumference. Methods: This study was conducted on 138 first diagnosed diabetic patients in a tertiary care hospital. Microalbuminuria was analyzed using dipstick method and correlation was made with parameters such as blood pressure, body mass index, and waist-hip circumference. Result: The incidence of microalbuminuria in first diagnosed diabetic patients was 17%. Incidence of microalbuminuria is increased in hypertensive diabetic patients (37%) compared with non-hypertensive diabetic patients (10%), which was statistically significant (p=0.001, r=0.292). Incidence of microalbuminuria among first diagnosed diabetic patients was 17%. The correlation of microalbuminuria with hypertension, BMI and waist-hip ratio suggest that microalbuminuria incidence is significantly associated with hypertension than BMI and waist-hip ratio. Conclusion: Microalbuminuria is the earliest indicator for detecting nephropathy. The incidence of microalbuminuria of 17% during first diagnosis of diabetes indicates the inadequacy in the health care system regarding the screening programs in the rural population. Thus, improvements must be made in the health care system to reduce the incidence rate by effective screening program.