A study, reported in a recent issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, found increased levels of uric acid in the blood may be an early sign of diabetic kidney disease in patients with type 1 diabetes before any major change in urine albumin level.
 
The results of the study give researchers hope of being able to stop or slow down the loss of kidney function while there is still some function.

This article originally appeared in the April 2008 issue of Kidney Beginnings: The Electronic Newsletter.