32^nd European Diabetes Congress

Diabetic Kidney Disease (Diabetic Nephropathy)

Diabetes causes injury to small blood vessels in the body.
When the blood vessels in the kidneys are injured, your kidneys cannot clean your blood properly. Your body will retain more water and salt than it should, which can result in weight gain and ankle swelling. You may have protein in your urine. Also, waste materials will build up in your blood.
Diabetes also may cause damage to nerves in your body. This can cause difficulty in emptying your bladder. The pressure resulting from your full bladder can back up and injure the kidneys. Also, if urine remains in your bladder for a long time, you can develop an infection from the rapid growth of bacteria in urine that has a high sugar level.
About 30 percent of patients with Type 1 (juvenile onset) diabetes and 10 to 40 percent of those with Type 2 (adult onset) diabetes eventually will suffer from kidney failure.
The earliest sign of diabetic kidney disease is an increased excretion of albumin in the urine. As your kidneys fail, your blood urea nitrogen (BUN) levels will rise as well as the level of creatinine in your blood which causes nausea, vomiting, a loss of appetite, weakness, increasing fatigue, itching, muscle cramps (especially in your legs) and anemia (a low blood count).