The presence of albumin in the urine often symptomatic of kidney disease.2Note: There are different thresholds and categories in defining albuminuria (see table below). Therefore, variability exists in how health care providers and researchers define, assess, and report albuminuria levels.
Typical thresholds for defining proteinuria and albuminuria.
Adapted from the National Kidney Foundation’s KDOQI guidelines for evaluation and stratification of chronic kidney disease (www.kidney.org).
Typical thresholds for defining proteinuria and albuminuriaUrine collection method | Normal | Microalbuminuria | Proteinuria or Macroalbuminuria |
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Total Protein |
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24-hour excretion | <300 mg/day | N/A | ≥300 mg/day |
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Spot urine dipstick | <30 mg/dl | N/A | ≥30 mg/dl |
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Spot urine protein:creatinine ratio | <200 mg/g | N/A | ≥200 mg/g |
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Albumin |
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24-hour excretion | <30 mg/day | 30-299 mg/day | ≥300 mg/day |
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Spot urine albumin-specific dipstick | <3 mg/dl | ≥3 mg/dl | N/A |
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Spot urine albumin:creatinine ratio |
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Overall* | <30 mg/g | 30-299 mg/g | ≥300 mg/g |
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Men** | <17 mg/g | 17-249 mg/g | ≥250 mg/g |
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Women** | <25 mg/g | 25-354 mg/g | ≥355 mg/g |
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N/A, not applicable.
*Use of the same cutoff for men and women is recommended by the American Diabetes Association guidelines but can result in higher prevalence in women.
**Gender-specific cutoffs are from a single study (Mattix et al., 2002).