Evidence-based Clinical Chinese Medicine Series Vol. 10

Diabetic kidney disease (DKD) is caused by diabetes mellitus. Over time, high levels of blood glucose damage the kidney’s filtering system, leading to kidney impairment and eventually failure. DKD affects millions of people globally and its impact is still ever increasing due to an ageing population and growing prevalence of diabetes. People with diabetes may not know they have DKD because in the early stages it is asymptomatic. Effective treatments targeting renal damage are limited. The mainstay of therapy is controlling blood glucose levels and reducing high blood pressure. This chapter describes the definition, risk factors, epidemiological profile, pathological processes, diagnosis and treatment of DKD.