Simple urine test may help identify individuals with diabetes at risk for cognitive decline

Protein in the urine may indicate increased risk

2013-08-30

(Press-News.org) Washington, DC (August 29, 2013) — The presence of protein in the urine may be a marker of risk for future cognitive decline in patients with type 2 diabetes and normal kidney function, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (CJASN). The finding suggests that urinary protein may be an early warning sign regarding patients' cognitive abilities.

Individuals with diabetes have an increased risk of experiencing cognitive impairment, especially impairment due to vascular causes. Joshua Barzilay, MD (Kaiser Permanente of Georgia/Emory School of Medicine), Lenore Launer, PhD (National Institute on Aging) and their colleagues evaluated whether albuminuria—a kidney complication that is common in people with diabetes and is characterized by protein excretion in the urine—predicts cognitive decline in older adults with diabetes.

The researchers studied 2977 diabetics with an average age of 62 years. Patients were recruited between August 2003 and December 2005 and were followed until June 2009. Participants underwent three neuropsychological tests: at the start of the study and again at 20 and 40 months. Tests included information processing speed, verbal memory, and executive function.

People with persistent albuminuria over four to five years had greater percent declines on information processing speed than participants without albuminuria. Persistent and progressive albuminuria were linked with a greater than 5% decline in information processing speed scores but not with verbal memory or executive function performance. "Our finding was a subtle change in cognition; however, were this decline to continue over 10 to 15 years it could translate into noticeable cognitive decline by the age of 75 to 80 years, when cognitive impairment generally becomes clinically evident," said Dr. Barzilay. "Given how common albuminuria and diabetes are in the older population, these findings have a great deal of importance from a population point of view. Moreover, albuminuria is also common among older people with hypertension without diabetes."

### Highlights Diabetics with persistent protein in the urine over four to five years had greater declines in cognitive function than diabetics without protein in the urine. The decline was subtle; however, over 10 to 15 years it could translate into noticeable impairment.

Study co-authors include James Lovato, MS, Anne Murray, MD, MS, Jeff Williamson, MD, Faramaz Ismail-Beigi, MD, PhD, Diane Karl, MD, and Vasilios Papademetriou, MD.

Disclosures: The authors reported no financial disclosures. The work was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute on Aging.

The article, entitled "Albuminuria and Cognitive Decline in People With Diabetes and Normal Renal Function," will appear online at http://cjasn.asnjournals.org/ on August 29, 2013, doi: 10.2215/CJN.11321112.

The content of this article does not reflect the views or opinions of The American Society of Nephrology (ASN). Responsibility for the information and views expressed therein lies entirely with the author(s). ASN does not offer medical advice. All content in ASN publications is for informational purposes only, and is not intended to cover all possible uses, directions, precautions, drug interactions, or adverse effects. This content should not be used during a medical emergency or for the diagnosis or treatment of any medical condition. Please consult your doctor or other qualified health care provider if you have any questions about a medical condition, or before taking any drug, changing your diet or commencing or discontinuing any course of treatment. Do not ignore or delay obtaining professional medical advice because of information accessed through ASN. Call 911 or your doctor for all medical emergencies.

Founded in 1966, and with more than 14,000 members, the American Society of Nephrology (ASN) leads the fight against kidney disease by educating health professionals, sharing new knowledge, advancing research, and advocating the highest quality care for patients.

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Mega-canyon discovered beneath Greenland ice sheet

2013-08-30

The canyon is at least 750km long and in places as much as 800m deep and is on the same scale as parts of the Grand Canyon in Arizona, USA. This remarkable, previously unknown, feature is thought to predate the ice sheet that has covered Greenland for the last few million years and has the characteristics of a meandering river channel. By comparison, the longest river in the UK, the River Severn, is about 350km long and much less wide and deep. Professor Jonathan Bamber of Bristol's School of Geographical Sciences, lead author of the study, said: "With Google Streetview ...

Research suggests terror bird's beak was worse than its bite

2013-08-30

It's a fiercely debated question amongst palaeontologists: was the giant 'terror bird', which lived in Europe between 55 to 40 million years ago, really a terrifying predator or just a gentle herbivore? New research presented at the Goldschmidt conference in Florence today (Thursday 29th August) may finally provide an answer. A team of German researchers has studied fossilised remains of terror birds from a former open-cast brown coal mine in the Geiseltal (Saxony-Anhalt, Germany) and their findings indicate the creature was most likely not a meat eater. The terror ...

Young whoopers stay the course when they follow a wise old bird

2013-08-30

COLLEGE PARK, Md – Scientists have studied bird migration for centuries, but it remains one of nature's great mysteries. How do birds find their way over long distances between breeding and wintering sites? Is their migration route encoded in their genes, or is it learned? Working with records from a long-term effort to reintroduce critically endangered whooping cranes in the Eastern U.S., a University of Maryland-led research team found evidence that these long-lived birds learn their migration route from older cranes, and get better at it with age. Whooping crane ...

Are you an avid Facebook user? It's all about your nucleus accumbens

2013-08-30

A person's intensity of Facebook use can be predicted by activity in a reward-related area of the brain, according to a new study published in the open-access journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. In the first study to relate brain activity to social media use, Meshi and colleagues observed activity in the brain's reward circuitry, the nucleus accumbens, in 31 participants. Researchers focused on the nucleus accumbens, a small but critical structure located deep in the center of the brain, because previous research has shown that rewards —including food, money, ...

Eating whole fruits linked to lower risk of Type 2 diabetes

2013-08-30

Boston, MA — Eating more whole fruits, particularly blueberries, grapes, and apples, was significantly associated with a lower risk of type 2 diabetes, according to a new study led by Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) researchers. Greater consumption of fruit juices was associated with a higher risk of type 2 diabetes. The study is the first to look at the effects of individual fruits on diabetes risk. "While fruits are recommended as a measure for diabetes prevention, previous studies have found mixed results for total fruit consumption. Our findings provide novel ...

Penn study: Protein that protects nucleus also regulates stem cell differentiation

2013-08-30

The human body has hundreds of different cell types, all with the same basic DNA, and all of which can ultimately be traced back to identical stem cells. Despite this fundamental similarity, a bone cell has little in common with a brain cell when it comes to appearance or function. The fact that bone is rigid and mechanically distinct from soft fat or brain had been speculated to play some role in differentiation to new cells in those parts of the body, but mechanisms have been unclear. Now, a study by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have shown that ...

Stroke systems of care essential to reducing deaths, disabilities

2013-08-30

Several key elements in systems of care can reduce stroke deaths and disabilities, according to a new American Heart Association/American Stroke Association policy statement published in its journal Stroke. Stroke is the number four cause of death and a leading cause of adult disability in the United States. On average, every 4 minutes someone dies of a stroke. The policy statement addresses patients' care from the time stroke symptoms are identified, to the emergency medical services' (EMS) response, to the transport and treatment in the hospital and rehabilitation. Recommendations ...

Stanford-developed collagen patch speeds repair of damaged heart tissue in mice

2013-08-30

STANFORD, Calif. - You can't resurrect a dead cell anymore than you can breathe life into a brick, regardless of what you may have gleaned from zombie movies and Dr. Frankenstein. So when heart cells die from lack of blood flow during a heart attack, replacing those dead cells is vital to the heart muscle's recovery. But muscle tissue in the adult human heart has a limited capacity to heal, which has spurred researchers to try to give the healing process a boost. Various methods of transplanting healthy cells into a damaged heart have been tried, but have yet to yield ...

Poverty impairs cognitive function

2013-08-30

Poverty consumes so much mental energy that those in poor circumstances have little remaining brainpower to concentrate on other areas of life, new research finds. As a result, those with few resources are more likely to make bad decisions that perpetuate their financial woes. Published in the journal Science, the study suggests our cognitive abilities can be diminished by the exhausting effort of tasks like scrounging to pay bills. As a result, less “mental bandwidth” remains for education, training, time-management, and other steps that could help break out of the ...

Poor concentration: Poverty reduces brainpower needed for navigating other areas of life

2013-08-30

Poverty and all its related concerns require so much mental energy that the poor have less remaining brainpower to devote to other areas of life, according to research based at Princeton University. As a result, people of limited means are more likely to make mistakes and bad decisions that may be amplified by -- and perpetuate -- their financial woes. Published in the journal Science, the study presents a unique perspective regarding the causes of persistent poverty. The researchers suggest that being poor may keep a person from concentrating on the very avenues that ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Early adoption of sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitor in patients hospitalized with heart failure with mildly reduced or preserved ejection fraction

New study finds atrial fibrillation common in newly diagnosed heart failure patients, and makes prognosis significantly worse

Quandela, the CNRS, Université Paris-Saclay and Université Paris Cité join forces to accelerate research and innovation in quantum photonics

Pulmonary vein isolation with optimized linear ablation vs pulmonary vein isolation alone for persistent AF

New study finds prognostic value of coronary calcium scores effective in predicting risk of heart attack and overall mortality in both women and men

Authoritative review makes connections between electron density topology, future of materials modeling and how we understand mechanisms of phenomena in familiar devices at the atomistic level