The effect of blood pressure intervention on renal function in insulin-dependent diabetes

Fig. 5 provides a summary of the natural history of diabetic nephropathy in IDDM patients. The figure also includes the possibilities of intervention in the various stages of diabetic nephropathy. GFR values in normals are shown by the hatched area in the upper part of the figure. The lower part shows development of albuminuria. The level 20-200 micrograms/min is the microalbuminuric range. At present it is not possible to predict a malignant course either from the parental history (1), or from the prediabetic course (2). Neither at clinical diagnosis of diabetes, can complications be predicted (3). The figure shows a typical course in a patient developing diabetes at the age of 14 years. The patient showed poor metabolic control as indicated by the high level of GFR (greater than 150 ml/min) (4) and the increasing albumin excretion rate (4). At the age of 22 years the patient developed microalbuminuria (5) and later clinical nephropathy at age 30 years, typically after 16 years of diabetes. Blood pressure rises, and GFR starts to decline during incipient diabetic nephropathy with increasing microalbuminuria (greater than 70 micrograms/min) (5) (6), and end-stage renal failure reached at the age of 40 years,--if intervention is not undertaken. Intervention is possible as follows: A) hyperfiltration may be reduced by non-glycemic intervention such as a moderate reduction of protein intake, treatment with aldose reductase inhibitors (work in progress) or acute administration of a somatostatin analogue.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)