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Biomedical subjects

G C Viberti

Publications and source records attributed to G C Viberti.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Prognostic significance of microalbuminuria in insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus: a twenty-three year follow-up study.

A cohort of 63 Type 1 insulin-dependent diabetic patients were first characterized for overnight urinary albumin excretion rate (AER) in 1967. In 1981, seven out of eight (87%) patients with initial AER greater than or equal to 30 less than or equal to 140 micrograms/min (microalbuminuria) developed clinical proteinuria compared to only 2 out of 55 (4%) patients with initial AER less than 30 micrograms/min. The same cohort of patients was reassessed in 1990 after a total follow-up period of 23 years. The aim was to investigate the role of microalbuminuria in the prediction of total/cardiovascular mortality and the development of renal failure, in addition to clinical proteinuria. The initially microalbuminuric patients had a significantly higher risk of developing not only clinical proteinuria (relative risk 9.3, 95% C.I. 1.36 to 3.10, P less than 0.05), but also of dying from a cardiovascular cause (relative risk 2.94, 95% C.I. 1.18 to 7.34, P less than 0.05). The rate of progression to renal failure was higher but not significantly so in the microalbuminuric (2 of 8) compared to the normoalbuminuric (4 of 53) group (relative risk 3.31, 95% C.I. 0.72 to 15.24, NS). In insulin-dependent diabetic patients microalbuminuria is a powerful predictor of clinically overt diabetic renal disease as well as cardiovascular mortality.

Adult

Introduction to a structural basis for renal and vascular complications in diabetes and hypertension.

BACKGROUND: An understanding of the structural basis for cardiovascular and renal complications in diabetes and hypertension is critical to design-focused intervention strategies. HYPOTHESIS: The processes leading to vascular damage in the kidney and in the arteries in diabetes and hypertension appear to be characterized by hypertrophic/hyperplastic changes in a number of cell types (such as smooth muscle cells, fibroblasts, mesangial cells) and by excessive deposition of extracellular matrix material. Markers of cell growth/proliferation, such as Na(+)-H+ exchange, show increased activity in diabetic patients with renal disease and in patients with essential hypertension. Insulin resistance is a feature of arterial hypertension and diabetes and may contribute to renal and cardiovascular damage in these patients. A number of risk factors for cardiovascular disease cluster in the subset of diabetic patients prone to renal disease. These include dyslipidaemia, left ventricular hypertrophy and hypertension. It is postulated that a familial predisposition to renal and cardiovascular disease is the underlying reason for the susceptibility to the diabetic cardiorenal syndrome. CONCLUSION: In the management of diabetes and hypertension, it may prove possible to instigate preventive strategies by using therapeutic agents such as angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors, which have the potential to interfere with the haemodynamic, growth and insulin sensitivity processes that contribute to vascular damage.

Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme Inhibitors

Predisposition to essential hypertension and the development of diabetic nephropathy.

Only a subset of insulin-dependent diabetic patients are at risk of developing nephropathy. Prospective studies of uncomplicated insulin-dependent diabetic cohorts have shown that a rise in systemic arterial pressure is a concomitant feature of the progression to early nephropathy. The development of hypertension is an integral feature of established nephropathy in diabetes, and its amelioration retards the progression of disease and may improve overall mortality. Family studies have suggested that nondiabetic parents of insulin-dependent diabetic patients with nephropathy have a greater prevalence of hypertension, and in certain groups of non-insulin dependent patients, it has been found that the blood pressure before the onset of diabetes correlates with the development of nephropathy after the onset of diabetes. These results indicate that a propensity to hypertension may be part of the genetic predisposition to nephropathy. This contention is further supported by the finding that a raised erythrocyte sodium-lithium countertransport, a biochemical marker of hypertension and cardiovascular disease whose activity is largely genetically determined, occurs with greater frequency in proteinuric diabetic patients and their nondiabetic parents than in those diabetic patients without nephropathy and their parents. Recent family studies have also shown that a family history of cardiovascular disease significantly increases the risk of nephropathy by up to three-fold in insulin-dependent diabetes. It is suggested that the cardiorenal complications of diabetes mellitus may be linked to reduced insulin sensitivity, which itself is associated with hypertension, raised sodium-lithium countertransport rates, and cardiovascular disease.

Antiporters

Diabetic nephropathy. Future avenue.

Diabetes mellitus has become the leading cause of ESRF in the United States. Patients with diabetic nephropathy suffer high cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Because only 40% of diabetic patients eventually develop diabetic kidney disease, it may be possible to devise primary prevention measures targeted at the subset of patients at risk. Recently, a predisposition to hypertension, a family history of diabetic nephropathy, and a family history of CVD disease each have been associated independently with the development of diabetic renal complication in IDDM. Risk factors for macrovascular damage, including raised arterial BP, dyslipidemia, and insulin resistance, can be detected early in the course of progression to diabetic nephropathy. These risk indicators recently have been shown to be already present at the stage of normoalbuminuria in those patients who eventually will progress to microalbuminuria. Treatment of established renal disease can only delay the onset of ESRF, and lowering of microalbuminuria has been shown to retard the onset of persistent proteinuria. However, no study to date has demonstrated prevention of renal disease in these patients. The ultimate aim should, therefore, be the prevention of the transition from normoalbuminuria to microalbuminuria in individuals who are at higher risk of diabetic renal disease and CVD.

Diabetic Nephropathies

Effect of low protein diet on the renal response to meat ingestion in diabetic nephropathy.

We measured the renal haemodynamic and proteinuric response to a meat meal (MM) in ten persistently proteinuric insulin-dependent diabetic patients in a randomized cross-over study of 3 weeks on low protein diet (LPD) or normal protein intake (NPD). On LPD, protein intake (0.64 +/- 0.05 vs 1.15 +/- 0.09 g kg-1 body weight (BW) per day, P less than 0.001), plasma urea (6.6 +/- 1.3 vs 11.0 +/- 2.0 mmol l-1, P less than 0.01) and urea appearance (0.06 +/- 0.01 vs 0.16 +/- 0.03 gN kg-1 body weight per day, P less than 0.001) were lower. Baseline glomerular filtration rate (GFR), renal plasma flow (RPF) and renal vascular resistance (RVR) were similar on the two diets and there were no significant average changes in these variables after the meat meal on either diet (NPD, before vs after MM: GFR: 67 +/- 11 vs 71 +/- 13 ml min-1 1.73 m-2; RPF: 479 +/- 70 vs 512 +/- 81 ml min-1 1.73 m-2; RVR: 181 +/- 45 vs 179 +/- 52 mmHg min-1 l-1); (LPD, before vs after MM: GFR: 64 +/- 10 vs 67 +/- 11 ml min-1 1.73 m-2; RPF: 506 +/- 60 vs 533 + 52 ml min-1 1.73 m-2; RVR: 151 +/- 28 vs 146 +/- 32 mmHg min-1 l-1). However, all patients with baseline GFR above 60 ml min-1 1.73 m-2 showed a GFR rise in response to the meat meal on both diets, while patients with lower baseline values tended to reduce their GRF.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Adult

Diabetic renal disease in type 1 diabetes: aetiology and prevention.

Diabetic renal disease affects a subset of about 35% of patients with Type 1 diabetes and is characterized by a triad comprising increased albuminuria, arterial pressure, and volume fraction of the mesangium. This leads to a decline in the glomerular filtration rate and ultimately end-stage renal failure or premature cardiovascular mortality. Individuals at risk can be detected before the development of persistent proteinuria by screening for microalbuminuria which has proved predictive of clinical nephropathy in about 80% of cases. Microalbuminuria is often accompanied by subclinical increases in arterial blood pressure and plasma lipid levels and is usually not apparent until 5 years after stabilization of newly diagnosed diabetes. This latter finding suggests that microalbuminuria is an indicator of early disease rather than a marker of susceptibility to it. Recent evidence suggests that diabetic renal disease may be linked to a familial, possibly genetically determined, predisposition to arterial hypertension or to some factor closely related to the risk of hypertension. This underlying predisposition may be one of the mechanisms leading to severe glomerular damage and may help to explain why clinical renal disease only occurs in a subset of diabetic patients. A number of therapeutic interventions, ranging from strict blood glucose control to low-protein diet and angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibition are effective in reducing or preventing further increases in microalbuminuria. If current long-term trials confirm that treatment of microalbuminuric diabetic patients prevents the onset of heavier persistent proteinuria secondary prevention of diabetic renal failure may become possible. The current criteria for diagnosis of diabetic nephropathy will then require revision.

Albuminuria

Risk factors for renal and cardiovascular disease in diabetic patients.

Diabetic patients who develop proteinuria show a marked increase in cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. The precise pathogenesis of human diabetic kidney disease and the factors responsible for the susceptibility to it remain, in part, obscure. However, there is now evidence that renal disease clusters in families and that genetic factors may be of central importance in determining susceptibility. Predisposition to arterial hypertension has been suggested as playing a contributory role in the development of kidney disease. Hypertrophic processes may be implicated in the susceptibility to arterial wall damage and glomerular injury in diabetes. Interestingly, fibroblasts of patients with diabetic nephropathy show a higher Na+/H+ antiport activity and a greater 3H-thymidine incorporation into DNA than fibroblasts of diabetic patients without nephropathy. The first clinical signs of renal involvement are the appearance of microalbuminuria and a small elevation in arterial pressure. Mesangial expansion accompanies these changes. Microalbuminuria is associated with abnormalities of lipoprotein profiles and higher Na+/Li+ countertransport rates. The environmental changes brought about by diabetes could lead in susceptible individuals to increased systemic and intraglomerular pressures on the one hand and to mesangial expansion on the other. These two processes would cause proteinuria and glomerulosclerosis. Lipid abnormalities may further aggravate the renal histological damage and, in combination with hypertension, contribute to the accelerated atherosclerosis typical of patients with diabetic kidney disease. A vicious circle would thus be triggered, involving reduction in renal function, further hypertension, proteinuria, glomerular obsolence and hyperlipidaemia, and eventually end-stage renal failure or premature cardiovascular death.

Albuminuria

Restriction of dietary protein and progression of renal failure in diabetic nephropathy.

In a study of the effect of a low-protein diet on the progression of renal disease 19 insulin-dependent diabetic patients with persistent clinical proteinuria were observed for 12-39 (mean 29) months while they were on a normal-protein diet (1.13 [0.06] g/kg per day), then for 12-49 (mean 33) months on a low-protein diet (0.67 [0.03] g/kg per day). The low-protein diet had no adverse effect on nutrition or glycosylated haemoglobin concentration. Mean supine blood pressure (BP) fell slightly on the low-protein diet and was probably due to the start or modification of antihypertensive medication in 9 patients. The mean rate of decline in glomerular filtration rate fell from 0.61 (SEM 0.14) ml/min per month with the normal-protein diet to 0.14 (0.08) with the low-protein diet, and this effect remained highly significant after adjustment for blood pressure, energy intake, and glycosylated haemoglobin. The rise in the fractional clearance of albumin during a normal-protein diet stopped with the low-protein diet, and there was a significant fall in albumin excretion from 467 (95% CI 234-895) micrograms/24 h on the normal-protein to 340 (138-719) on the low-protein diet. Thus, a low-protein diet, with its reduction in protein and possibly other dietary components such as phosphate or fat, seems to retard the rate of decline of glomerular filtration rate in diabetic nephropathy independently of blood pressure changes and glycaemic control.

Adult

Plasma lipid and coagulation factor concentrations in insulin dependent diabetics with microalbuminuria.

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether insulin dependent diabetics with microalbuminuria have significant abnormalities in concentrations of lipoproteins, apolipoproteins AI and B, fibrinogen, and clotting factor VII which could result in increased cardiovascular risk. DESIGN: Case-control study. SETTING: Outpatient department of a metabolic ward. PATIENTS: Group of 20 insulin dependent diabetics with urinary albumin excretion rates greater than 30 micrograms/min (microalbuminuria) and 20 individually matched insulin dependent diabetics with normal urinary albumin excretion rates (below 30 micrograms/min) matched for age, sex, and duration of diabetes. INTERVENTIONS: Fasting venous blood samples were taken for determination of concentrations of glucose, glycated haemoglobin, lipoproteins, apolipoproteins AI and B, fibrinogen, and factor VII. Height, weight, arterial pressure, and usual insulin dose were recorded, and each patient was given a dietary questionnaire to be completed at home. END POINT: Comparison of blood pressure and concentrations of lipoproteins, apolipoproteins AI and B, and fibrinogen in the diabetics with microalbuminuria and the controls. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Patients with microalbuminuria had significantly higher concentrations of low density lipoprotein cholesterol (mean 3.33 (SE 0.20) v 2.84 (0.12) mmol/l) and very low density lipoprotein cholesterol (0.30 (0.05) v 0.17 (0.03) mmol/l) than controls but significantly lower concentrations of high density lipoprotein 2 subfraction cholesterol (0.32 (0.04) v 0.54 (0.04) mmol/l). Concentrations of total triglyceride (1.11 (0.14) v 0.68 (0.08) mmol/l), very low density lipoprotein triglyceride (0.56 (0.10) v 0.30 (0.05) mmol/l), apolipoprotein B (0.88 (0.06) v 0.67 (0.03) g/l) and fibrinogen (2.2 (0.1) v 1.9 (0.1) g/l), and diastolic arterial pressure (80 (2) v 74 (2) mm Hg), were also higher in patients with microalbuminuria. CONCLUSIONS: Cardiovascular risk factors--namely, disturbances in lipoprotein and apolipoprotein concentrations, increased fibrinogen concentration, and increased arterial pressure--are already present in insulin dependent diabetics with microalbuminuria. The increased risk of coronary heart disease in patients with clinical proteinuria may result from prolonged exposure to these risk factors, which are present before any impairment of renal function.

Albuminuria

Interventions based on microalbuminuria screening and low-protein diet in the treatment of kidney disease of diabetes mellitus.

Microalbuminuria in insulin-dependent diabetics appears to indicate early renal damage rather than susceptibility to it, yet a series of relatively small, short-term intervention studies in insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus patients have already demonstrated reduction in albumin excretion rates or arrest in the increase of fractional clearance of albumin. Treatments have ranged from the use of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors aimed at lowering BP to the use of diets restricted to 0.5 to 0.6 g/kg protein and strict blood glucose control by intensified insulin treatment. Large, long-term intervention studies of cohorts of insulin-dependent and non-insulin-dependent diabetic patients with microalbuminuria are now needed to assess the effects of the different modalities of care on the development of persistent proteinuria, end-stage renal disease, and cardiovascular mortality as well as associated quantitative changes in the renal structure.

Albuminuria

Glomerular hyperfiltration and urinary prostaglandins in type 1 diabetes mellitus.

In order to determine whether glomerular hyperfiltration in diabetes is related to renal prostaglandin production we have studied the urinary excretion of PGE2, 6-keto-PGF1 alpha, and TXB2 in two sex, age and duration of diabetes matched groups of 9 and 10 Type 1 diabetic patients with either normal (mean 121, range 105-129 ml min-1 1.73 m-2) or supranormal glomerular filtration rate (154, 135-206 ml min-1 1.73 m-2). A group of 15 matched healthy volunteers served as control subjects. Urine was collected overnight for an uninterrupted period of at least 6 h. All studies in the patients were performed during insulin-induced sustained euglycaemia to prevent the confounding effect of variable degrees of blood glucose control on urinary prostaglandin excretion. Blood pressure was normal in all subjects. Urinary excretion of 6-keto-PGF1 alpha was significantly higher in the patients with glomerular hyperfiltration (median 17.1, range 4.5-33.6 ng h-1) than in those without (8.8, 1.5-13.8 ng h-1; p less than 0.05) or in normal control subjects (9.6, 5.2-15.5 ng h-1; p less than 0.05). No significant differences were found in the excretion rates of PGE2 and TXB2 between the three groups. Under conditions of controlled plasma glucose and insulin concentrations the urinary excretion of 6-keto-PGF1 alpha, the stable breakdown product of PGI2, a compound of endothelial, possibly glomerular, origin was elevated only in the diabetic patients with glomerular hyperfiltration.

6-Ketoprostaglandin F1 alpha