Aims: Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is a serious microvascular complication of a longstanding hyperglycemia. This study aims to evaluate whether urinary neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) and urinary Interleukin-18 possess a better diagnostic value than albumin creatinine ratio in assessing the severity of nephropathy in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).

Material & methods: Ninety participants diagnosed with T2DM were recruited and they were divided into three study groups according to their albumin/creatinine ratio (ACR): (Normoalbuminuria group, Microalbuminuria group, and Macroalbuminuria group). A matching of Ninety healthy subjects were included as controls. Blood and urine samples were collected to measure various markers of glycemic control and kidney function.

Results: IL-18 levels were not changed significantly between all study groups (P > 0.05), despite a significant positive correlation between IL-18 and urinary albumin levels. NGAL levels were significantly increased in Microalbuminuria group and Macroalbuminuria group as compared to the control and Normoalbuminuria groups. NGAL was also positively correlated with urinary albumin and ACR, but negatively correlated with the age and body mass index. Receiver Operating Characteristic curves revealed that for early detection of DN, the best cutoff values to discriminate DN and diabetic without nephropathy groups were ˃ 21.4 ng/ml for NGAL (94.67 sensitivity, 26.67% specificity), ≤0.34 pg/mL for IL-18 (72% sensitivity, 53.33% specificity), and ˃29.8 mg/g for ACR (80% sensitivity, 100% specificity).

Conclusion: We conclude that the urinary ACR is a more accurate individual biomarker of DN when compared to both NGAL and IL-18.