ALB and diabetic kidney disease: The natural history of diabetic nephropathy includes five stages, starting with initial hyperfunction and hypertrophy at diagnosis, followed by increased glomerular filtration rate (GFR) with normal albumin excretion, incipient diabetic nephropathy (characterised by microalbuminuria), then overt clinical nephropathy leading to progressive renal failure, followed by end-stage renal disease (ESRD) with uremia [2].