What is proteinuria ?-

Blood contains numerous proteins.The most important among these is albumin. Normal kidney acts as a filter & does not allow the albumin to be lost in urine during the passage of blood through it's filtering system. However when the filtration apparatus is damaged as in D.M., proteins start appearing in the urine. This is known as proteinuria.

What is microalbuminuria ?

Conventionally albumin in the urine is detected using dipsticks. However these dipsticks detect the albumin only when they are present in high amounts. That means, by the time urine is positive for proteins by dipsticks the kidney damage has already progressed. Microalbuminuria is the condition when very small amounts of albmin are present in the urine.

What is the significance of detecting microalbuminuria ?
By detecting microalbuminuria we can detect kidney damage in its earliest stage. Thus treatment of the same can be started ealy. Drugs called as ACE inhibitiors can be used to delay the further progression of the kidney damage from this stage.

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