Significance of anti-glomerular basement membrane antibodies in type 2 diabetic patients.
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.


CONCLUSIONS
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.
Noorwali
Abdulsalam
A
Head of Department of Medicine, Umm Al-Qura University, PO Box 16977 Makkah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. anoorwali@hotmail.com
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000906:Antibodies / Q000032:analysis / Q000276:immunology*; D001323:Autoantibodies; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000032:analysis; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000276:immunology*; D003928:Diabetic Nephropathies / Q000209:etiology / Q000276:immunology*; D018450:Disease Progression; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007677:Kidney Function Tests; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011336:Probability; D011379:Prognosis; D012016:Reference Values; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012720:Severity of Illness Index
D000906:Antibodies; D001323:Autoantibodies; D015415:Biomarkers; C051951:antiglomerular basement membrane antibody