• View Main Menu
  • Diagnosis
  • Care Planning
  • Living with my Diabetes
  • Unwell
  • Complications: Prevention & Treatment
  • Pregnancy
  • Diabetes for Young People
  • Education and News
  • Clinical Resources, Guidelines and Contacts

 Kidney

Kidney disease or nephropathy is a common complication of diabetes in both type 1 and type 2, this will often end in end stage renal failure. Diabetes is the leading cause of end stage renal disease.

Diabetic nephropathy is a progressive disease that takes several years to develop. There are many tiny blood vessels in the kidney and they act as filters to remove waste and excess water from the blood.

In diabetic nephropathy these tiny blood vessels are damaged, become leaky and protein leaks into the urine causing proteinuria. The damaged filters eventually are destroyed and this in turn puts more stress on the remaining filters and causes them to become damaged.  When the entire filter system breaks down the kidneys fail to work and hence this is called end stage renal failure (ESRF).

When ESRF happens the patient requires dialysis or a kidney transplant in order to stay alive. For more information please visit the Kidney Research UK website.