Diabetes-Related Kidney Disease Can Be Fatal

Filed in archive Developments , Notable , Research on December 27, 2007

Type 1 diabetes patients who develop the most advanced form of kidney disease - end-stage renal disease (ESRD) - can die (have poor outlook).



Such were the confirmation by a new study that examined the epidemiology and long-term survival of patients with ESRD by diabetic status in Australia and New Zealand (ANZ).

As reported in the medical journal Diabetes Care:

"End stage renal disease remains a dreadful complication in patients with type 1 diabetes, and great effort to prevent kidney disease in these young patients is needed.

Compared with non-diabetic patients, the risk of death after the first renal replacement therapy was 64 percent higher in those with type 1 diabetes and 13 percent higher in those with type 2 diabetes.

Despite high access to renal transplants, type 1 diabetic patients had a poor prognosis after starting renal replacement therapy."

Diabetes is the most important cause of ESRD - a condition wherein the kidneys lose their ability to filter waste products from the blood and excrete them in the urine and that people with ESRD need kidney dialysis or a kidney transplant to stay alive.

Find more details from Reuters Health.

[Photo Credit: aurorahealthcare.org]