Diabetes is the number one cause of Chronic Kidney Disease. Over a number of years diabetes
causes damage to the tiny blood vessels in your kidney. It is important to
manage your diabetes well. Keeping your blood sugar in a healthy range will slow
down the damage to your kidney. All types of diabetes cause kidney disease.
Each kidney contains up to one million nephrons, the filtering units of the
kidneys. Inside a nephron is a tiny set of looping blood vessels called the
glomerulus. Damage to these filters caused by diabetes is called Diabetic Kidney
Disease - known as Diabetic Nephropathy.
In the Diabetes Control and Complications Trial (DCCT), 1441 people with type
1 diabetes were randomly assigned to 6.5 years of intensive diabetes therapy to
achieve as close to normal serum glucose levels as possible. Then, 1375
participants were followed in the Epidemiology of Diabetes Interventions and
Complications (EDIC) study. Serum creatinine levels, the number one sign of
kidney disease, were measured annually throughout the course of the study.
Researchers estimated the GFR, and then analyzed the data from the two studies
to determine the long-term effects of intensive diabetes therapy on the risk of
impaired GFR.
Researchers found that impaired GFR was seen in 24 participants assigned to
intensive therapy, and 46 assigned to conventional therapy. Among these
participants, end-stage renal disease developed in eight patients with intensive
therapy and 16 in the conventional group.
The long-term risk of an impaired GFR was much lower in patients treated
early in the course of type I diabetes with intensive diabetes therapy than
among those treated with conventional diabetes therapy.
