Correlation between serum ferritin and proteinuria as marker of diabetic nephropathy stage in type 2 diabetic patients

Background: Increased iron reserves in the body have been linked to the development of type 2 diabetes, as well as diabetic nephropathy, retinopathy and vascular dysfunction. Serum ferritin has been related to the occurrence of CKD. Aim of study: Aiming to look into the link between serum ferritin and proteinuria as a diabetic nephropathy marker in type 2 diabetic patients. subjects and methods: It involved 50 individuals of the same age and gender who were split into two groups: 25 type 2 diabetic patients with proteinuria and 25 apparently healthy volunteers (hospital personnel) with no history of diabetes who served as the control group. The Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELIZA) kit for quantitative detection of human serum ferritin was used to estimate serum ferritin. Results: In the current study, serum ferritin levels in diabetics with proteinuria showed a high significant rise when compared to the control group. (p < 0.001). The comparative present study, the mean ± SD of diabetic patients with nephropathy, serum ferritin was 513.91±260.06 than that of control 133.42±186.66. The current study found a high significant positive relationship between ferritin and 24h protein in diabetic patients with nephropathy(r=0.512, p=0.009), show no significant positive association in control group (r=0.02, p=0.94). Conclusion: serum ferritin can be considered as an independent predicting marker of diabetic nephropathy as well as an excellent diagnostic marker for patients with clinical diabetic nephropathy.