Although microalbuminuria is known to foretell the later development of overt proteinuria in patients with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM), different investigators have reported different levels of albuminuria as being predictive. However, whether different levels of albuminuria reflect differences in glomerular structure is not well known. In this study, we divided a cohort of 66 nonproteinuric long-standing (duration 20 +/- 7 years) IDDM patients, who had both renal functional and structural studies performed, into four groups according to their urinary albumin excretion rate (AER). The several different levels of microalbuminuria previously reported to be predictive served to demarcate these groups: group I, AER < or = 22 mg/24 h (upper limit for normal in our laboratory) (33 patients); group II, AER 23-45 mg/24 h (11 patients); group III, AER 46-100 mg/24 h (13 patients); and group IV, AER 101-220 mg/24 h (9 patients). Creatinine clearance was similar in groups I, II, and III but was lower in group IV. Systemic hypertension was present in five patients in group I, one in group II, seven in group III, and five in group IV. Mean values for glomerular basement membrane (GBM) width and volume fraction of the mesangium [Vv(mes/glom)] were greater in all groups than in a group of 52 age-matched normal kidney donors (P < 0.0001). Also, filtration surface density [Sv(PGBM)], inversely related to Vv(mes/glom) (r = 0.61, P < 0.0001), was reduced in all diabetic groups compared with the normal group (P < 0.0001). Structural measures were identical in group I and II.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)