www.ijbcp.com International Journal of Basic & Clinical Pharmacology | August 2017 | Vol 6 | Issue 8 Page 2082 IJBCP International Journal of Basic & Clinical Pharmacology Print ISSN: 2319-2003 | Online ISSN: 2279-0780 Original Research Article An observational cross-sectional study to determine the effect of telmisartan on reducing microalbuminuria in diabetic hypertensive patients in tertiary care teaching hospital, Central India Santenna Chenchula 1 *, Rupesh Gupta 2 , Balakrishnan S. 1 , Akash Vishwe 1 , Pushparaj Gour 1 , Sunil Kumar 1 INTRODUCTION Nephropathy is a frequent complication of diabetes, the most common cause of kidney failure in the western world, and results in decreased life expectancy. Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a metabolic disorder with different causes, characterized by hyperglycaemia resulting from defects in insulin secretion and / or action. In year 2000 171 million cases of DM worldwide were estimated and that number is expected to increase to 366 million cases in 2030. 1 Microalbuminuria is a subclinical increase in urinary albumin excretion. By definition it defined as an albumin excretion rate of 20 to 200milligram/Litre in the first morning sample, 20-200μg/min in a timed overnight or 24 hour sample on at least 2 of 3 occasions within a period of 6 months (or) an albumin to creatinine ratio (mg/mmol) of 2.5 to 25 in males and 3.5 to 35 in females. 2 Microalbuminuria is an important clinical finding because it is not only associated with an increased risk of progression to proteinuria (macroalbuminuria) and renal failure, but also increase risk for cardiovascular events. In patients who progress to nephropathy, microalbuminuria ABSTRACT Background: There are many groups of drugs to decrease microalbuminuria like angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEI), angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs), calcium channel blockers and direct vasodilators. Among these, ACEI and ARBs are commonly used for this purpose. If side effects occur, ACEI are replaced with ARBs. Many ARBs have been studied for their effect on reducing microalbuminuria, but data on telmisartan with its additional unique properties are scarce in Indian population. Methods: This cross sectional observational study was carried out in a tertiary care centre. We first measured base line urine albumin levels in included patients, 3 months after treatment with telmisartan using ‘hemocue urine albumin analyser’. We collected and compared both baseline and after treatment data of microalbuminuria and analysed in descriptive statistics. Results: A total of 110 patients participated in this study; out of which 10 patients were excluded from the study because they were not available for follow up. As compared to baseline, urine albumin level decreased by 30.42% after 12 weeks treatment with telmisartan (P <0.001). Conclusions: Microalbuminuria is one of the leading cause of end stage renal disease and coronary heart diseases in diabetic hypertensive patients. Drugs like ACE inhibitors, Angiotensin receptor blockers, Calcium channel blockers and direct vasodilators are used to prevent these complications. In this present study, we concluded that telmisartan decreases urine albumin excretion around 30.42% from baseline after 12 weeks of treatment. Keywords: Diabetic nephropathy, Microalbuminuria, Telmisartan DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2319-2003.ijbcp20173300 1 Department of Pharmacology, 2 Department of General Medicine, AIIMS, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India Received: 31 May 2017 Revised: 02 July 2017 Accepted: 05 July 2017 *Correspondence to: Dr. Santenna Chenchula, Email: csanten7@gmail.com Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open- access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non- Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non- commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.