Differences between diabetic nephropathy and diabetic kidney disease
The terms diabetic nephropathy (DN) and diabetic kidney disease (DKD) are used interchangeably to describe a set of characteristic clinical and pathologic findings.
The main clinical findings of DKD are the presence of albuminuria, progressive chronic kidney disease (CKD), and less commonly microscopic hematuria. Diabetes is the most common cause of the nephrotic syndrome.
Proteinuria is first detected by screening for albumin in the urine. A normal urine albumin level is less than 30 mg/day.
Abnormal urine protein is defined in two stages. Moderately increased albuminuria (formerly known as microalbuminuria) is defined as 30 to 300 mg/day.
Severely increased albuminuria (formerly known as macroalbuminuria) is defined as greater than 300 mg/day and is also known as overt proteinuria or overt nephropathy.
