Urinary Neutrophil Gelatinase-Associated Lipocalin Levels as an Indicator of Early Kidney Injury in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

Introduction: Diabetic nephropathy is one of the major complications of diabetes mellitus.It is the most common cause of end-stage renal disease.Neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) is a biomarker that increases before serum creatinine in early acute kidney injury.We examined in this study the hypothesis that urinary NGAL levels may be elevated as an indicator of early diabetic nephropathy in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus.Methods: This study included a total of 78 patients (51 females and 27 males, mean age 57.74±8.97years).The patient group consisted of 38 patients (24 females and 14 males, mean age 58.68 ± 8.36 years) and the control group consisted of 40 healthy subjects (27 females and 13 males, mean age 56.85 ± 9.53 years).The groups were compared in terms of anthropometric, demographic, biochemical data, and urinary NGAL levels.Urinary NGAL levels were measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.Results: No significant difference was found in urinary NGAL levels between the patient and control groups (7.53±8.49,9.04±9.98,p>0.05, respectively).Albumin/creatinine ratios were significantly higher in the patient group than in the control group (0.14±0.09, 0.08±0.02,p<0.05, respectively).No significant correlation was found between urinary NGAL levels and disease duration, body mass index, glomerular filtration rate, waist circumference, albumin/creatinine ratio, and HbA1c (p>0.05 for all).Discussion and Conclusion: The results of our study show that urinary NGAL levels do not have sufficient predictive value to identify early diabetic nephropathy.