Abstract:
Diabetic nephropathy (DN) – specific kidney damage in diabetes (D), accompanied by the formation of nodular or diffuse glomerulosclerosis and a progressive decrease in renal function. Currently, DN is one of the most common and severe complications of diabetes. According to epidemiological studies, DN develops in 20-40% of patients with D, being the only cause of end-stage CRF. Clinically significant renal disease occurs in every third patient with type 1 diabetes and six with type 2 diabetes. In the United States and Western Europe, DN ranks 1-3 among the diseases in which extracorporeal renal replacement therapy is carried out. Until recently, DN was presented as a process manifesting microalbuminuria and then progressing to proteinuria, which leads to end-stage renal failure. Studies in the last decade have shown that the progression of albuminuria and decreased renal function are rather two different manifestations of DN than successive stages of the same process.
