Study participants' demographic information, past medical history and concomitant medications were taken from medical records. Diabetes mellitus was defined by history of diet‐controlled diabetes, treatment with anti‐diabetic medications or HbA1c greater than 48 mmol/mol.
Laboratory measurements included routine blood haematological profiles (Haematology Analyser, Beckman Coulter, Brea, CA, USA) and blood biochemical profiles and urinary ACR (Roche Hitachi 702 Analyser, Basel, Switzerland). eGFR was derived from the serum creatinine‐based CKD‐EPI equation. CRP was measured using the Full Range C‐Reactive Protein SpaPlus assay (The Binding Site, Birmingham, UK) for participants with CKD and the CRP High Sensitive ELISA (IBL, Hamburg, Germany) for volunteers without renal disease.
Laboratory measurements included routine blood haematological profiles (Haematology Analyser, Beckman Coulter, Brea, CA, USA) and blood biochemical profiles and urinary ACR (Roche Hitachi 702 Analyser, Basel, Switzerland). eGFR was derived from the serum creatinine‐based CKD‐EPI equation. CRP was measured using the Full Range C‐Reactive Protein SpaPlus assay (The Binding Site, Birmingham, UK) for participants with CKD and the CRP High Sensitive ELISA (IBL, Hamburg, Germany) for volunteers without renal disease.