urinary albumin

[timbla]

i've been told i have high levels of protein in my urine, suggesting kidney problems.

i have no idea what this means, as i was told this by my diabetic nurse, and need to wait til i see my doc on monday before i know more about it.

any thoughts on the matter would be appreciated. is there anyone here who knows about this?

is this going to mean more medication? the prospect for dialysis?

its hard staying positive in the face of all this, sometimes

 

[novorapidboi26]

could also indicate infection, so tests may be carried out to confirm if there is anything kidney related, but it could just be an infection........🙂

 

[AlisonM]

I had the same at the time I was diagnosed, but it seems to have cleared up now as my numbers have improved. I also had a fatty liver, or so they said, and they kept asking me how much alcohol I drink. Trouble is I don't drink and haven't for many years. That seems to have cleared up now too.

I'd say don't stress too much about it, it may mean pills for a while, or it may clear up on it's own. I understand it's fairly common among diabetics and is closely associated with high blood sugars.

 

[Caroline]

It is probably just an infection as others have said. If you are very worried there is no harm in seeing if you can get a quicker appointment with your GP or seeing if you can have a chat over the phone.

 

[timbla]

ive just been reading up on diabetic nephropathy.

http://www.aafp.org/afp/2005/0701/p96.html

pretty grim.

if its an infection, then fair enough. never thought id ever say that. but there's relativity for you.

but dont fancy being prescribed pills.

thanks to all.

 

[PhilT]

I wouldn't be unduly worried if I were you.

Prior to being put on insulin when my BG's were very high my Doctor did an ACR urine test which measures the Albumin-to-Creatinine Ratio, which gives an indictaion of any damage to your kidneys.

Although an initial urine test had shown quiet alot of protein in my urine, the ACR test showed my kidney's had not sustained any damage.

Has your Doctor done an ACR test?

Hope everything turns out ok and try not to worry.

Hopefully everything will be fine.

 

[timbla]

i think it was the ACR test that I had. i dont see my doctor until next monday, but at my long-standing appointment with the diabetes nurse today, she did mention something about creatinine and ratios, but to talk to doc about it.

i very tongue-in-cheek asked my brother earlier if he'd donate a kidney to me if i needed one and he said no!

its not my day 😎

 

[Lizzzie]

the way i understand it is: kidneys filter blood. The first step is that blood passes through some specialised capillaries (glomeruli) that have walls like sieves (sp? as in, the thing in your kitchen). Small molecules go through the walls of these seives and into the kidney 'tubules' where more advanced filtering goes on (waste ends up in the tube towards the bladder, useful things end up back in the blood). Larger molecules e.g. albumen, don't pass through . They stay in the blood end never see the kidney tubules.

That is, in normal people. However, if the glomeruli are damaged, the seive 'leaks' and albumin passes through the seive into the kidney tubules, and from there passes into the bladder. However, as other people have pointed out, that's not the only reason for finding protein in your urine - the protein could come from the bladder e.g. in an infection, and be washed out with the urine.

So what they do is to check your kidneys another way. Creatinine is made from normal muscle breakdown in your body as normally filtered out through the kidney tubules system. The amount of creatinine passing through your kidneys and ending up in urine can be compared to the amount of albumen in your urine. You can also look at the amount of creatinine still in the blood (high blood levels suggest the kidney not effectively filtering creatinine out and imply kidney problems, but again kidney dysfunction isn't the only explanation for this!). In short, testing and interpreting the results is fairly complex.

Until your doctors are happy they have performed sufficient tests and you have been given the results, all you know is that there might be a kidney prolem. but there also might not.

 

[Lizzzie]

If there IS a kidney-related concern, it might be very mild and just need to be monitored for now. Remember, some people give away a whole kidney (ie 50% of their available kidney tubules) and live absolutely normally. I think the figure is about 70% of kidney can be lost before symptoms start.

Think of the tests as a very early warning system - after all it's useful to catch kidney disease a long time before 70% is lost and you start getting symptoms. This way, you can look at treatment to prevent further loss of function.

Yes, sometimes these tests do lead to bad news and people sometimes need dialysis and and if you want to scare yourself a lot, do some reading.

But more usually, even if kidney damage has been found, the news is 'there is some deterioration in your kidney function and we need to take some steps to look after your kidneys better and you can go on living a normal life.'

So even if they actually find kidney problems, you don't need to worry yet.

 

[mcdonagh47]

but dont fancy being prescribed pills.

thanks to all.

Important to protect your kidneys if you are a Type 2.
You are probably on course for an ACE Inhibitor ( e.g. Lisinopril or ramipril ) or an ARB.