Renal glycosuria is a rare condition in which the simple

sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose, fructose, and galactose. Compound sugars, also called disaccharides or do ...

glucose Glucose is a simple sugar with the molecular formula . Glucose is overall the most abundant monosaccharide, a subcategory of carbohydrates. Glucose is mainly made by plants and most algae during photosynthesis from water and carbon dioxide, u ...

is excreted in the urine despite normal or low blood glucose levels. With normal kidney (renal) function, glucose is excreted in the urine only when there are abnormally elevated levels of glucose in the blood. However, in those with renal glycosuria, glucose is abnormally elevated in the urine due to improper functioning of the renal tubules, which are primary components of

nephron The nephron is the minute or microscopic structural and functional unit of the kidney. It is composed of a renal corpuscle and a renal tubule. The renal corpuscle consists of a tuft of capillaries called a glomerulus and a cup-shaped structure ...

s, the filtering units of the kidneys.

Signs and symptoms

In most affected individuals, the condition causes no apparent

symptom Signs and symptoms are the observed or detectable signs, and experienced symptoms of an illness, injury, or condition. A sign for example may be a higher or lower temperature than normal, raised or lowered blood pressure or an abnormality showi ...

s (asymptomatic) or serious effects. When renal glycosuria occurs as an isolated finding with otherwise normal kidney function, the condition is thought to be inherited as an autosomal

recessive trait In genetics, dominance is the phenomenon of one variant (allele) of a gene on a chromosome masking or overriding the effect of a different variant of the same gene on the other copy of the chromosome. The first variant is termed dominant and t ...

Genetics

It is associated with SLC5A2, coding the sodium-glucose cotransporter 2.

Diagnosis

A doctor normally can diagnose renal glycosuria when a routine urine test (

Urinalysis Urinalysis, a portmanteau of the words ''urine'' and ''analysis'', is a panel of medical tests that includes physical (macroscopic) examination of the urine, chemical evaluation using urine test strips, and microscopic examination. Macroscopic e ...

) detects glucose in the urine, while a blood test indicates that the blood glucose level is normal.

Treatment

The cause of glycosuria determines whether the condition is chronic or acute. However, the presence of glucose in urine is not necessarily a serious or life-threatening condition.Managing diabetes, hyperthyroidism and regular kidney function tests can help in reducing excretion of sugars in urine. Drugs like dapagliflozin and canagliflozin have recently been approved for lowering blood sugar levels in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus.

References

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