Renal pathology and clinical features of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and chronic kidney disease

Objective To retrospectively investigate the pathological and clinical characteristics of diabetic nephropathy and non-diabetic nephropathy diagnosed with renal pathology. Methods Data of 110 patients diagnosed as type 2 diabetes mellitus combined with chronic kidney disease (CKD) and conducted renal biopsy from January 2004 to December 2013 in our hospital were retrospectively analyzed. According to pathological diagnosis, patients were categorized into three groups: DN group, NDRD group and DN with NDRD group (MIX group). Results Membranous nephropathy was the most prevalent pathological type in NDRD group while IgA nephropathy was the major pathological type in MIX group. Compared with NDRD, DN patients had a higher anemia and diabetic retinopathy(DR) rate (all P＜0.05). The prevalence of having both nephrotic range proteinuria and kidney function decrease was higher in DN than NDRD (P＜0.05). Conclusions Renal pathology is important for the differential diagnosis of DN and NDRD since there is a relatively high rate of NDRD in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and CKD.