Why albuminuria should be assessed more frequently in everyday clinical practice? Position statement

the urine undergoes additional modifications in the filtrate. [3][[5][6][7][8][9][10] The concept of albuminuria as an indicator of kidney damage and / or a biomarker of systemic diseases dates back to 1969, when elevated albumin levels were first demonstrated in the urine of patients with newly diagnosed diabetes. 3 The importance of urine albumin detection in diagnosing and then monitoring kidney damage in diabetes was reinforced by a series of studies performed in the early 1980s; at that time, its role was also found in the prediction of progression of kidney damage and other complications in patients with diabetes. 4 Contemporary reference ranges defining normoalbuminuria have been established based on early studies on albumin excretion and reflect the threshold of sensitivity of the methods used at that time.Most guidelines still consider albumin excretion below 30 mg/d as within the reference range. 5-7Considering technical difficulties with a reliable 24-hour urine collection, albuminuria is currently defined as the urinary albuminto-creatinine ratio (UACR) in the first morning portion of urine.Normoalbuminuria expressed in this way is below 30 mg/g or 3 mg/mmol creatinine.Some expert groups propose separate normal ranges for men (eg, UACR <17-25 mg/g creatinine) and women (eg, UACR <25-35 mg/g creatinine).Microalbuminuria was defined as urinary albumin excretion in the range of 30 to 300 mg/d (3-30 mg/mmol creatinine, 30-300 mg/g creatinine), and values exceeding the upper