I have diabetes. how do i know if my kidneys are affected?

Urine test: Kidney disease generally progresses over several years without any symptoms. Your doctor should be able to measure the levels of a protein called Albumin in your urine. Albumin levels should be monitored yearly in diabetic patients to monitor kidney function.

Lab tests: You need to have regular lab tests to check your kidney function. The urine is checked for protein and blood tests are used to estimate the glomerular filtration rate, a measure of kidney function. Previously used nuclear medicine tests are now extremely rare. Usually, people cannot feel an early decline in kidney function, so lab tests are essential.

Lab Tests: Blood tests for nitrogen containing waste products like BUN and creatinine are useful, and allow the calculation of estimated filtration rate (egfr) to check the efficiency of the kidneys. However, screening for protein in the urine with a sensitive test called microalbumin picks up damage from diabetes even earlier.

Urine and blood labs: some tests used to check kidneys' health in diabetes are: 1. urine microalbumin/creatinine ratio 2. GFR 3. Creatinine Maintaining a very low carb lifestyle helps to halt and sometimes even revert the kidney changes of diabetes.