If you haven't been tested for microalbuminuria, the next time you see your doctor, arrange to have this test done. Don't wait for your doctor to bring it up. In a recent survey of over 1,000 primary care physicians, researchers at Indiana School of Medicine found that almost 50 percent of the doctors surveyed did not test any of their patients with diabetes for microalbuminuria. They are now also used to slow the progression of kidney disease in people with type I diabetes. Each glomerulus has a blood vessel that supplies blood to the filter and a separate one that drains the filter.
ACE inhibitors lower the pressure in the glomeruli by relaxing the vessel that drains the filter.
Not all blood pressure-lowering drugs work in both the large vessels and the glomeruli. In research studies, the use of an ACE inhibitor called captopril cut the progression of kidney disease in half in patients with type I diabetes and early kidney disease. ACE inhibitors other than captopril may be equally effective. Captopril has Food and Drug Administration approval for use in people with type I diabetes with overt nephropathy, that is, in those people with dipstick-positive proteinuria. The Association now recommends that people with type I diabetes and microalbuminuria use ACE inhibitors, to protect kidneys at an even earlier stage.