Clinical Significance of Urinary Liver-Type Fatty Acid–Binding Protein in Patients With Diabetic Nephropathy

Abstract
Adult patients with type 2 diabetes were recruited from the outpatient clinic of the Division of Nephrology and Hypertension, Diabetes Center, Tokyo Women’s Medical University Hospital, Tokyo, Japan. Patients were classified into four stages of nephropathy according to albumin-to-creatinine ratio (ACR) in the first-morning urine and serum creatinine concentrations. Patients with a serum creatinine concentration ≥2.0 mg/dl were categorized as having renal failure. Patients with serum creatinine <2.0 mg/dl were classified as normoalbuminuric if ACR was <30 mg/g creatinine, as microalbuminuric if ACR was 30–299 mg/g creatinine, and as having clinical albuminuria if ACR was ≥300 mg/g creatinine (6).