Clinical characteristics, complications and management of patients with type 2 diabetes with and without diabetic kidney disease (DKD): A comparison of data from a clinical database

Abstract

Background and objectives: The main objective of this study was to assess the percentage of co-morbid nephropathy in type 2 diabetes patients using the CKD-EPI equation and to compare the clinical characteristics and treatments of patients with type 2 diabetes with nephropathy with those of patients without nephropathy PATIENTS AND METHODS: This was a cross-sectional analysis of the demographic and clinical data registered in the IDIBAPS Biobank database. Patients were considered to have nephropathy if the diagnosis was reported in their clinical history, albuminuria (>30 mg/g) was indicated as present in the last urine test available, or an estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) below 60 ml/min/1.73 m² was calculated using the CKD-EPI equation.

Results: Clinical data were obtained from 1,397 patients with a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes. The percentage of patients with nephropathy was 29.3% (N= 369) (95% confidence interval, 26.8% to 31.9%); however, only 109 (7.8%) patients had a nephropathy diagnosis reported in their clinical history. Compared with patients without nephropathy, patients with nephropathy have a higher mean age, higher frequency of diabetes complications and received insulin more frequently.

Conclusion: Our results show that the percentage of type 2 diabetes patients with nephropathy was high and that this comorbidity was associated with a significantly higher frequency of diabetes macro- and microvascular complications (compared to diabetes patients without DKD).

Keywords: CKD-EPI equation; Diabetes tipo 2; Diabetic kidney disease (DKD); Ecuación CKD-EPI; Enfermedad renal diabética; Type 2 diabetes.