(nef-rah'-puh-thee): Kidney failure resulting from diabetes. Damaged blood vessels make the kidneys unable to filter toxins properly so that the nephrons of the kidney become diseased.

Kidney dysfunction in an individual with diabetes

Diabetic nephropathy is a deterioration of the kidneys caused by proliferated growth and subsequent bursting of the tiny blood vessels in the kidneys. In its early stages, diabetic nephropathy has no clinical signs or symptoms. After many years of diabetes the delicate filtering system in the kidneys becomes destroyed, initially becoming leaky to large blood proteins such as albumin which are then lost in urine. This is more likely to occur if the blood sugar is poorly controlled. Approximately 10% of diabetics in the United States suffer from diabetic nephropathy.

a progressive condition in diabetics in which blood vessels in the kidney, which act as part of the kidney's filtration system, become irreparably damaged over time. Diabetic nephropathy is the leading cause of end-stage renal disease.

see nephropathy.

Diabetic nephropathy (nephropatia diabetica), also known as Kimmelstiel-Wilson syndrome and intercapillary glomerulonephritis, is a progressive kidney disease caused by angiopathy of capillaries in the kidney glomeruli. It is characterized by nodular glomerulosclerosis. It is due to longstanding diabetes mellitus, and is a prime cause for dialysis in many Western countries.