['This study examined the associations among the factors of metabolic syndrome, microinflammatory state, and kidney injury in type 2 diabetes mellitus patients.', 'A retrospective study was conducted on 914 type 2 diabetes mellitus patients from January 2007 to May 2008. We observed the prevalence of chronic kidney disease in different groups of type 2 diabetes mellitus patients, and analyzed the association between metabolic syndrome and chronic kidney disease. We chose 84 cases randomly from this cohort to test their inflammatory biomarkers including tumor necrosis factor alpha, interleukin-6, and C-reactive protein to study the relationship to chronic kidney disease.', 'The prevalence of chronic kidney disease was 39.17% (358 patients), and patients with metabolic factors had a significantly higher prevalence of chronic kidney disease than without metabolic factors (40.90% vs. 17.65%, p < 0.01). The metabolic factors and microinflammatory biomarkers were significantly higher in patients with chronic kidney disease. Patients who had more abnormal metabolic factors also had higher levels of microinflammatory biomarkers, as well as higher risk of chronic kidney disease. Multiple logistic regression analyses revealed that systolic blood pressure, serum triglyceride, low density lipoprotein, age, and duration of diabetes were independent risk factors of chronic kidney disease in type 2 diabetes mellitus patients.'] Do metabolic factors and microinflammatory state promote kidney injury in type 2 diabetes mellitus patients?