ALB and diabetes mellitus: In the participants with NDM, in whom there was no confounding by the use hypoglycaemic agents or the duration of diabetes, multiple linear regression analysis was conducted with ln-transformed STB as the dependent variable, and sex, age, BMI, waist circumference, FPG, HbA1c, SBP, DBP, serum albumin, alanine transaminase, triglycerides, HDL-c, LDL-c, creatinine, UACR, high sensitivity C-reactive protein, white blood cell count, haemoglobin concentration, platelet count and smoking status as independent variables.