[The kidney as a target organ in diabetic patients with arterial hypertension]

Diabetes mellitus has become the most common single cause of end-stage renal disease in the Western world. Diabetic nephropathy, as most forms of renal disease leading to end-stage renal failure, is frequently complicated by arterial hypertension. In type 1 diabetes mellitus the reported excess in arterial hypertension is almost entirely accounted for by patients who develop persistent proteinuria, and the cumulative incidence of hypertension and proteinuria in this population displays a virtually superimposable pattern. In both type 1 and type 2 diabetes mellitus, the level of arterial hypertension closely correlates with the subsequent decline in glomerular filtration rate and with accelerated renal damage.