Diabetic Nephropathy
- Diabetic nephropathy is more prevalent in those diabetic patients who develop diabetes at a younger age and suffer for a longer duration, and are not properly managing their blood glucose levels.
Diabetic Nephropathy
Diabetic nephropathy is also known as diabetic kidney disease. In diabetic nephropathy, the kidneys are damaged as the result of diabetes mellitus. Diabetic nephropathy develops in about 35 percent of the diabetic patients around 15 to 20 years after diagnosis. Kidney failure accounts for 48 percent of all death in diabetics who develop the diabetes mellitus before age 20.
Diabetes mellitus affects the small blood vessels in the glomeruli of the kidney. Glomeruli are the filtering units in kidneys. When the blood vessels are damaged, protein starts to leak into the urine. The kidney's ability to excrete wastes and excess water from the body is also impaired because of this.
Symptoms of diabetic nephropathy, however, are not noticeable until the damage to the kidney is very severe. By then, the diabetic patients may experience vomiting, drowsiness, and shortness of breath. Diabetic patients, who have diabetes for a long time, usually have high blood pressure or hypertension. Hypertension may aggravate the kidney damage further.
Regular visit to your doctor is important. Your doctor will help you to monitor your diabetes mellitus and any abnormalities that point to diabetes complications may be detected early; in this case, kidney damage. The first sign of kidney damage is protein that has leaked into the urine. This condition is called albuminuria. Further test is performed to check your kidney function. If diabetic nephropathy is diagnosed, the primary aim in treatment is to slow the progression of the disease to kidney failure.
End stage kidney failure, caused by diabetic nephropathy, is the irreversible loss of function of both kidneys. End stage kidney failure is often life-threatening. However, diabetic patients with end stage kidney failure need to be treated with dialysis for the rest of their lives. Kidney transplant can be another option but the surgery involved is complex and one has to deal with a lifetime of immunosuppressant.
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