Intensive Diabetes Therapy and Glomerular Filtration Rate in Type 1 Diabetes

Persons with type 1 diabetes are at high risk for kidney disease. In this study, intensive diabetes therapy administered early in the course of type 1 diabetes reduced the long-term risk of an impaired glomerular filtration rate. An impaired glomerular filtration rate (GFR) is the final common pathway of diabetic kidney disease. Once the GFR is impaired, cardiovascular disease events and progression to end-stage renal disease occur at unacceptably high rates, even with proven medical management. 1 – 3 This underscores the need for the primary prevention of impaired GFR in persons with diabetes. The Diabetes Control and Complications Trial (DCCT) and the observational study that followed it, the Epidemiology of Diabetes Interventions and Complications (EDIC) study, showed that intensive diabetes therapy that lowered glycated hemoglobin levels reduced the risk of microalbuminuria and macroalbuminuria among persons with type 1 . . .