Abstract
BACKGROUND: Diabetic nephropathy is one of the causes of chronic kidney disease with a very complex mechanism, in which oxidative stress plays an important role and bilirubin acts as an effective antioxidant, protecting cells from damage caused by oxidative stress. OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study was to investigate the relationship between plasma bilirubin concentration with glomerular filtration rate and creatinine in patients with type 2 diabetes with renal damage. METHODS: Total amount of 60 patients with type 2 diabetes with renal damage. Study design was descriptive. RESULTS: Mean age 64.1±4.76. The rate of decreased glomerular filtration rate was 86.7% and increased albuminuria accounted for 96.7%. The concentration of total bilirubin in plasma decreased correspondingly to the decrease in glomerular filtration rate. The concentration of total, free and conjugated bilirubin was negatively correlated with creatinine concentration (r=-0.48), (r=-0.37), (r=-0.34) and positively correlated with glomerular filtration rate (r=0.54), (r=0.45), (r=0.41) with p<0.05). The area under the curve (AUC) of total bilirubin concentration was 0.7, lower than the area under the curve (AUC) of creatinine concentration 0.8, uric acid 0.74. CONCLUSION: Plasma bilirubin concentration is inversely correlated with creatinine concentration and positively correlated with glomerular filtration rate.