ABSTRACT
Nephropathy is one of the most characteristic complications of diabetes. Individuals without diabetes are twice as likely to identify renal disease, compared to cardiovascular disease, as a complication of diabetes [1]. Diabetic renal disease, described since the second century A.D. [2], burdens patients and health care systems to the extent that US government officials have referred to the “enormity of the problem of diabetic renal failure” [3]. The proportion of patients with end stage renal disease (ESRD) who also have diabetes varies from approximately 25% in the UK and Canada to over 40% in the US [4] [5] [6] making diabetic nephropathy the main reason for renal replacement therapy [4].
