Intensive therapy halves kidney disease in type 1 diabetes

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-11/niod-ith111011.php

Public release date: 12-Nov-2011
Contact: Mary M. Harris
NIH/National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases
NIH-funded study shows long-term benefits

Controlling blood glucose early in the course of type 1 diabetes yields huge dividends, preserving kidney function for decades. The new finding from a study funded by the National Institutes of Health was published online in the New England Journal of Medicine Nov. 12 to coincide with presentation at a scientific meeting.

Compared to conventional therapy, near-normal control of blood glucose beginning soon after diagnosis of type 1 diabetes and continuing an average six and a half years reduced by half the long-term risk of developing kidney disease, according to the Diabetes Control and Complications Trial (DCCT) and Epidemiology of Diabetes Interventions and Complications (EDIC) Research Group. The risk of kidney failure was also halved, but the difference was not statistically significant, perhaps due to the relatively small total number of patients who reached that stage of the disease.


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