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Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Diabetic glomerulosclerosis is a common cause of proteinuria in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM), however, primary glomerulonephritis can superimpose on it. The aim of this study is to evaluate the significance of anti-glomerular basement membrane (GBM) antibodies in type 2 DM. METHODS: We choose 60 well known Saudi patients with type 2 DM diagnosed according to American Diabetes Association criteria attending the medical outpatient clinic at Al-Noor Specialist Hospital in Makkah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia between July 2004 and December 2004, after written consent and divided them into 3 groups according to the degree of albuminuria, either normal, micro albuminuric or with diabetic nephropathy. We choose 20 healthy subjects as the control. We checked anti-GBM serum level by indirect solid phase immunosorbent assay (ELISA). RESULTS: There was significant increase in anti-GBM serum levels in diabetic patients compared with the control subjects, mainly in the normal and micro albuminuric patients groups, but not in patients with diabetic nephropathy. CONCLUSION: Anti-GBM antibodies are a significant predictor of diabetic nephropathy especially in the early phases, however, we need further studies to document its clinical importance in such common, important diabetic complications.

Article Type

Research Article

First Page

1734

Last Page

1736

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