Abstract
Renal disease in diabetic patients is mediated by a set of complicated hemodynamic, metabolic, and inflammatory factors. Diabetic kidney disease (DKD) increases the risk of requiring replacement therapy and renal transplantation as well as all-cause mortality. DKD is characterized by albuminuria, a low glomerular filtration rate (GFR, lower than <60 mL/min/1.73 m(2)), or both of them and it develops over a period between 10 and 20 years. Such a condition is preventable through strict blood pressure and glycemic control yet early diagnosis is necessary to improve the outcome. It is necessary to consider DKD detection in diabetic patients with a low GFR even in normoalbuminuric cases. However, patients with type I diabetes and microalbuminuria are more likely to develop overt nephropathy although both types of diabetes with established nephropathy would progress to renal failure at the same rate. Long-term complications, including renal failure and cardiovascular events (stroke and nonfatal myocardial infarction), could be minimized via conducting future research studies that possibly reveal potent biomarkers for early detection and enhance the therapeutic approaches based on an adequate understanding of disease pathogenesis.