Correlation of Urine Biomarkers: Microalbuminuria and Spot Urine Protein among Diabetic Patients. Application of Spot Urine Protein in Diabetic Kidney Disease, Nephropathy, Proteinuria Estimation, Diagnosing and Monitoring

Current study has invented a new method for utilizing spot urine protein among diabetic patients. There have been various efforts and strategies in research internationally to detect, diagnose and monitor nephropathy/DKD. Although 24-hour urine studies are gold standard, however, there exist some controversies about microalbuminuria and spot urine protein. The current study was designed to utilize spot urine protein among diabetic patients and to find its association with routine dipstick urine test for albumin, and microalbuminuria. The study demonstrated significant association of spot urine protein with urine dipstick albumin, and has demonstrated increasing spot urine protein with increasing albumin in urine (p-value < 0.0001). This study also demonstrated significantly higher levels of spot urine protein between the groups with nephropathy/DKD as compared to those without nephropathy/DKD (p-value < 0.0001). Similarly, spot urine protein and spot urine protein/creatinine were also significantly associated with microalbumin and microalbumin/creatinine in urine. Significant regression models for spot urine protein and microalbuminuria were also developed and proposed to detect and estimate microalbumin in urine while utilizing spot urine protein (< 0.0001). Synthesized regression equations and models can be used confidently to detect, rule out and monitor proteinuria and DKD. ROC curves were utilized to detect spot urine protein cutoff points for nephropathy and DKD with high specificity and sensitivity. Some important patents were also discussed in the paper regarding albuminuria/proteinuria detection and management. Current study has demonstrated and concluded, for the first time, that there exists a significant association of spot urine protein with routine dipstick albumin in urine and microalbuminuria. It is also essential to detect early, monitor and manage proteinuria, hypertension and dyslipidemia with good glycemic control to prevent diabetes complications.