Up to 40 per cent of young people with type 1 diabetes may be at risk of kidney disease, a complication which also increases the risk of heart disease. In the first study of its kind, researchers examined the link between levels of albumin (a protein typically found in the blood but also excreted in small amounts in the urine) in the urine of adolescents with type 1 diabetes and the relative risk of heart and kidney diseases.
Although elevated albumin levels in the urine are already used to identify adults with diabetes who are at higher risk of kidney and heart disease, this is the first time that researchers have shown that normal variation in these levels can be an indicator of risk during adolescence.
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Image: Insulin pens
Credit: Sriram Bala
Reproduced courtesy of the University of Cambridge
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Research helps identify young people with type 1 diabetes at risk of heart and kidney disease
7 November 2013
Using a simple urine test, researchers can now identify young people with type 1 diabetes at risk of heart and kidney disease. The new research, funded by JDRF, Diabetes UK, and the British Heart Foundation (BHF), has been published in the journal Diabetes Care.