Objective To study the clinical effect of combined use of atorvastatin combined with irbesartan in the treatment of early diabetic nephropathy. Methods Fighty patients with early diabetic nephropathy who met the diagnostic criteria were randomly divided into three groups:control group(n=25),treatment group A (n=25), treatment group B (n=25). All patients received daily diabetes routine treatment, treatment group A received irbesartan 150 mg qd, treatment group B received atorvastatin 20 mg qd, treatment group C received both irbesartan (150 mg qd) and atorvastatin(20 mg qd). The study courses were three months for all groups. TC, TG, HDL-C, FPG, 2 hPG, HbA₁c, serum creatinine (Scr), urinary albumin (U-mAlb), urinary β₂ microglobulin (β₂-MG) were tested before and after the treatments. Results The FPG, 2 hPG, HbA₁c were significantly lower after the treatment in all groups(P<0.05), and there was no statistical difference between groups. U-mAlb, U-β₂MG, Scr in groups A and B were significantly lower than those before treatment,and there were statistically significant differences between before and after treatment (P<0.05). TC, TG, HDL-C in the contral group were not significantlg different before and after treatment (P>0.05). TC, TG in groups A and B were significantly lower than those before treatment,and HDL-C increased, with significant difference (P<0.05) . Conclusions Atorvastatin combined with irbesartan can effectively mitigate or reverse the early diabetic nephropathy patients with glomerular and renal tubular injury; the mechanism may be related to its combination of intensive lipid-lowering and strengthening the inhibition of RASS system.