Early renal involvement and nephropathy. Can treatment modalities be predicted from identification of risk factors in diabetics?

There is now circumstantial evidence indicating that initiation and progression of renal disease in diabetes is associated with the degree of metabolic control, although modifying factors, such as elevation of blood pressure and, possibly, dietary protein intake, are important. Further, there is differential susceptibility, and more studies are clearly needed to clarify why some patients develop nephropathy and others do not, despite similar metabolic control. Metabolic control, blood pressure level and protein intake are probably not only risk factors but are also involved in the pathogenesis of diabetic nephropathy. Thus, intervention by optimizing glycaemic control and blood pressure treatment and by low-protein diets appears possible and can be recommended as a prudent treatment programme. Early clinical detection of patients at risk for late nephropathy is already possible, since easy, rapid, inexpensive methods for detecting microalbuminuria are now available.