Diabetic Kidney Disease, We Need to Act Fast

Abstrakt

Diabetes is the leading cause of end-stage kidney failure throughout the world in both developed and developing countries.' The same is now true of Kashmir Valley also. In a study conducted in 1999 amongst 780 patients of chronic kidney disease in the only nephrology unit of the Valley, chronic glomerulonephritis was the commonest cause of chronic kidney disease constituting 33% of the total number.2 But a decade latter in another study diabetes was the leading cause of chronic kidney disease and accounting for 33.3% of the total number.It is very important to alert doctors, patients and govern-ments to the increasing health and socioeconomic problems due to diabetic kidney disease and its sequelae (1) end stage kidney disease requiring renal replacement therapy, and (2) cardio-vascular death. There is a horrifying lack of awareness of diabetic kidney disease at all levels and we need to emphasize that its management involves prevention, recognition and treatment of its complications. Primary prevention of type 2 diabetes will require massive life-style changes. J Med Sci.2010;13(1);1-3