[Clinical and biochemical aspects of diabetic nephropathy]

Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is the most important cause of increased morbidity and mortality in patients with diabetes mellitus. Moreover DN is associated with a high risk for cardiovascular complications and progression of renal failure. It is known that there is a cumulative risk of development of DN represented by genetic factors, glycaemic factors, hypertension, alterations in the lipid metabolism, smoking. Functionally, it is represented by increased glomerular filtration rate (silent phase) and renal hypertrophy, increased the urinary albumin excretion rate, increased blood pressure and decline in glomerular filtration rate (end phase). Biochemical DN induced the alterations in lipid metabolism (increased the serum concentrations of triglicerides, VLDL, LDL), alterations in glycaemic metabolism (blood glucose, glycated hemoglobin, glycated albumin). The correlations between clinical and biochemical aspects are developed in this reference.