Diabetic Nephropathy in the Elderly

Although diabetes is clearly linked to macro- and microvasculopathy in multiple organs resulting in cardiovascular and cerebrovascular catastrophic diseases, blindness, and limb amputations, it is the relentless progression of diabetic nephropathy toward becoming the major cause of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) that now challenges budgets and treatment facilities providing hemodialysis, peritoneal dialysis, and kidney transplantation. Nephrology, as a specialty, is now dominated by the necessity to address geriatrics and endocrinology to cope with the tidal wave of elderly ESRD patients suffering from uremia caused by diabetes. On the brighter side, emergence of effective renoprotective regimens now slow the incidence rate of ESRD in those with diagnosed diabetes. There is bona fide reason to hope that within a decade, kidney failure attributable to diabetes will be transformed into a preventable complication of a disease that has dominated and directed our heritage.