Malattia renale nel diabete: oltre la nefropatia diabetica = Kidney disease in diabetes : beyond diabetic nephropathy

Chronic kidney disease is a major type of kidney disease where a gradual loss of kidney function over a period of months to years can be observed. Its early detection is critical in improving the clinical outcome. It may be associated to diabetes, the illness being cause of the nephropathy, and then the condition is known as diabetic kidney disease (DKD). However, it may be associated to diabetes, but the pathogenesis arising could be attributable to other reasons, and then the condition is known as non diabetic kidney disease (NDKD). In this review we will focus on these two conditions, and we will briefly outline the state of the art of some traditional biomarkers (the quantitative determination of albumin in urine, eGFR), the role and the interpretation of some established biomarkers for the evaluation of glycemic control (glycated hemoglobin and glycated albumin) and the potential use of other new biomarkers useful to predict the development of the nephropathy.