My Diabetes Information Blogs
New Test for Diabetic Nephropathy Could Be Giant Leap
03/22/07
Diagnosis, Prevention, Disease Basics, General
One of the big problems with kidney disease is you don't know you have it until a lot of damage has been done. It is rare for a patient or physician to identify diabetic kidney disease, or nephropathy, early on. The urine test just does not pick up the proteins that indicate damage until a lot of damage is done.
So, it is exciting news when scientists publish an article in the journal Diabetes Care outlining a new test that can predict a fair amount of diabetic nephropathy before it even begins.
It appears that they still have some fine-tuning to do, but if they can pull this off they could extend the lives of countless people by allowing doctors to treat diabetic kidney disease early on.