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Maintaining glycosylated hemoglobin levels in diabetic patients at approximately 10% may reduce their risk of end-stage kidney disease. Measuring glycosylated hemoglobin is another way of measuring blood sugar. A 10% level is approximately equivalent to a blood sugar of 200 milligrams per deciliter. Researchers measured a glycosylated hemoglobin called hemoglobin A1 in 1,613 diabetic patients who had been diagnosed with microalbuminuria. Microalbuminuria is an increase in albumin excretion in the urine, which can be a sign of early kidney disease. The risk of microalbuminuria increased as the level of hemoglobin A1 increased. Twelve percent of those with the lowest hemoglobin A1 levels had microalbuminuria, compared to 36% of those with the highest levels. A 10% hemoglobin A1 level appeared to be the cut-off point below which diabetic patients had little risk of microalbuminuria and above which they had a greatly increased risk of microalbuminuria.