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Diabetic Nephropathy, as a complication of Diabetes, develops through five clinical stages. The earliest manifestation on the patients is abnormal leakage of albumin in urine and swelling. Learn about the five clinical stages:
Stage 1 Diabetic Nephropathy.
Stage 1 Diabetic Nephropathy is characterized by increased GFR(glomerular filtration rate) and augmented kidney volume.
The disease is reversible at this stage. The reason for increased GFR and augmented kidney volume comes out of need to excrete more blood sugar into urine.
Stage 2 Diabetic Nephropathy.
It is featured by thickened glomerular basilar membrane and increased basilar matrix. Albumin in urine increase intermittently after exercise. At this stage, patients with GFR>150mL/min and UAE>30μg/min have more tendency of developing into Clinical Diabetic Nephropathy.
Stage 3: Early stage Diabetic Nephropathy
Detectable urine albumin excretion at 20～200μg/min and blood pressure begins to increase. Usually, patients with high blood pressure develops into renal failure stage much faster than other kidney diseases.
Stage 4: Clinical Diabetic Nephropathy
Heavy proteinuria (more than 3.5 g/24h), severe swelling and high blood pressure.
In this stage, the disease should be well controlled from both aspects of Diabetes and kidney damage. Otherwise, kidney function will drop continuously and enter end-stage renal failure.
Stage 5: end-stage renal failure
In this stage, pathologically, there will be widely thickened basilar membrane. As kidneys are very severely injured, systemic disorder will arise, causing a series of symptoms and discomforts such as poor appetite, nausea, vomiting, skin itching and so on.
For Diabetic Nephropathy, early detection and treatment may reverse the disease. However, in later course, if not treated timely, kidney condition may deteriorate rapidly and finally run to kidney failure. If receiving medical treatment in early stage of Diabetic Nephropathy is very beneficial for sufferers to have a good prognosis.
