ABSTRACT
Diabetes mellitus leads the causes of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) in the United States (US), Japan, and most nations in industrialized Europe. As tabulated in the latest US Renal Data System (USRDS) Report (2002), of 96,192 patients begun on therapy for ESRD during 2000, 41,772 (43.4%) had diabetes, an incidence rate of 145 per million population [1] (figure 1). Reflecting their relatively higher death rate compared to other causes of ESRD, the prevalence of US diabetic ESRD patients on December 31, 2000, was 34% (131,173 of 378,862 patients). Both glomerulonephritis and hypertensive renal disease rank below diabetes in frequency of diagnosis among new ESRD patients, substantiating the contention of Mauer and Chavers that “Diabetes is the most important cause of ESRD in the Western world [2]”.
