[Effects of physical activity on microalbuminuria in type 1 diabetics without nephropathy]

Physical exercise is a well known provocative test for early renal abnormalities detection in diabetes mellitus. Aim of our study was to evaluate the effect of daily activity and physical exercise on albumin excretion rate (AER) in 2 groups of albustix negative type I diabetics (IDDM). In group I of 76 patients aged 7-58 years, AER measured in 24 h urine (14.1 +/- 1.7 micrograms/min) and overnight urine (11.1 +/- 1.7 micrograms/min) was similar. A significant correlation was found between AER values obtained from the two urine collection procedures (r = 0.55; p less than 0.001). In group 2 of 37 patients aged 7-48 years and in 25 matched controls, the effect of physical exercise on AER was evaluated comparing overnight urine and post-exercise urine collection. AER increased significantly in IDDM after exercise. In conclusion our results show that 1) AER is not affected by daily activity; 2) physical exercise is a usefull provocative test to detect early renal abnormalities.