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Kidney lesions in diabetic patients with normoalbuminuric renal insufficiency

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Abstract

Diabetic nephropathy is a leading cause of end-stage renal disease in Japan. Microalbuminuria has been considered as the first clinical sign of diabetic nephropathy. However, recent studies demonstrated that normoalbuminuric renal insufficiency is not uncommon for diabetic patients, especially in type 2 diabetes. Although the pathogenesis of normoalbuminuric renal insufficiency in diabetic nephropathy remains to be fully elucidated, distinct clinical and pathological features of diabetic patients with this finding have been reported as compared to those in diabetic patients with a typical clinical course. In type 1 diabetes, more advanced glomerular lesions were found in patients with normoalbuminuric renal insufficiency than in patients with normoalbuminuric preserved renal function. In contrast, disproportionately advanced tubulointerstitial and vascular lesions, despite minor diabetic glomerular lesions, which denote the presence of diabetic kidney lesions as well as nephrosclerosis, were likely to be related to the development of normoalbuminuric renal insufficiency in some type 2 diabetic patients. In addition, long-term outcomes of diabetic patients with normoalbuminuric renal insufficiency remain controversial. Further studies to gain a better understanding of the structural–functional relationships and natural history of diabetic patients with normoalbuminuric renal insufficiency may improve the benefits of therapeutic interventions for diabetic nephropathy.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported in part by a Grant-in-Aid for Diabetic Nephropathy Research, and for Diabetic Nephropathy and Nephrosclerosis Research from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare of Japan. T.W. is also a recipient of a Grant-in-Aid from the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture in Japan.

Conflict of interest

No potential conflicts of interest relevant to this article were reported.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Nephrology, Kanazawa University Hospital, Kanazawa, Japan

    Miho Shimizu, Kengo Furuichi, Tadashi Toyama, Yasunori Iwata, Norihiko Sakai & Takashi Wada

  2. Department of Disease Control and Homeostasis, Kanazawa University Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kanazawa, Japan

    Miho Shimizu, Kengo Furuichi, Tadashi Toyama, Yasunori Iwata, Norihiko Sakai & Shuichi Kaneko

  3. Division of Nephrology, Kanazawa Medical University, Uchinada, Japan

    Hitoshi Yokoyama

  4. Division of Nephrology, Department of Laboratory Medicine, Kanazawa University Graduate School of Medical Sciences, 13-1 Takara-machi, Kanazawa, Ishikawa, 920-8641, Japan

    Takashi Wada

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  1. Miho Shimizu
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  2. Kengo Furuichi
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  3. Hitoshi Yokoyama
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  7. Shuichi Kaneko
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  8. Takashi Wada
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Takashi Wada.

Additional information

Presented at the 42nd Eastern Regional Meeting of the Japanese Society of Nephrology.

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Shimizu, M., Furuichi, K., Yokoyama, H. et al. Kidney lesions in diabetic patients with normoalbuminuric renal insufficiency. Clin Exp Nephrol 18, 305–312 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10157-013-0870-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10157-013-0870-0

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