Abstract

Aim: Diabetic nephropathy develops in 30-40% of type I diabetic patients and causes chronlc renal failure if there is no precaution, Death occurs in 50% of them within 5-7 years, In this study, the predictive value of tubular damage was assessed when microalbuminuria is not present in early stage of diabetes mellitus, Methods: Tubular N-acetyl-ß-D-glucosaminidase (NAG) and cholinestarase (CE) enzyme activities were measured, Forthy eight children who have no proteinurla shown by urinary dipsticks with a mean age of 14.25±4.6 years and duration of diabetes between 0.5-18 years were selected for this study. Twenty healthy cases with a mean age of 13.45±4.4 years were selected as controL Albumin (alb), creatinin (cre) in 24 hours urine, NAG and CE in spot urine were measured in both groups, Type I diabetic cases were divided into two groups according to their being normoalbuminuric (alb/cre<2,5 mg/mmol) or microalbuminuric (alb/cre>2.5 mg/mmol). Results: Duration of the diabetes was langer in the microalbuminuric group compared to the normoalbuminuric group (p<0.001). Urine NAG/cre values in both normoalbuminuric and microalbuminuric groups were statistically higher than the NAG/cre values of the control group (p<0.001, p<0.001 respectively). Urine CE/cre ratio was not different between normoalbuminuric and mieroalbuminurie groups (p>0.5). However CE/cre ratio of these two groups were statistieally higher than CE/ere ualues of the control group (p