Effect of Cigarette Smoking on Urinary Podocyte Excretion in Early Diabetic Nephropathy

Smoking has been pinpointed as a factor causing progression of chronic nephropathies. It is worth noting that smoking increases urinary albumin concentration, even at albumin concentrations below that of microalbuminuria (1). There is growing evidence that smoking not only increases the risk of albuminuria but also the risk of renal functional deterioration. The frequency of nephropathy is progressively higher with increasing cigarette consumption. The available literature documents that smoking increases the risk of developing microalbuminuria, accelerates the rate of progression from microalbumunuria to manifest proteinuria, and accelerates the progression of renal failure (1). Chase et al. (2) reported that in a group of 359 young patients with type 1 diabetes, the prevalence of borderline and frankly elevated urinary albumin …