Clinical and histopathological characteristics of diabetic patients with nephrotic proteinuria. A case series

Abstract Objective: to describe the clinical and histopathological characteristics of diabetic patients with nephrotic-range proteinuria. Materials and methods: the kidney biopsies of diabetic patients with nephrotic proteinuria were reviewed. Descriptive analyses were performed along with a comparison of three groups according to the histopathological findings. Results: the medical charts of 19 patients from 2018 through 2020 were collected, most of whom (94.7%) were diagnosed with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM), with an average age of 58 years, and an average duration of DM of 9.9 years (SD: ±7.3). The findings from biopsies performed throughout the years prior to data collection showed that 26.3% had diabetic nephropathy as the only finding, 31.6% had a nephropathy other than diabetic nephropathy, and 42.1% had findings of both diabetic and nondiabetic nephropathy. A comparison of the groups showed a significant difference in the duration of DM, which was greater in patients with diabetic nephropathy (16.4 vs. 5 vs. 9.5 years, respectively, p: 0.024). Conclusions: we present a case series of diabetic patients with nephrotic-range proteinuria in Colombia, showing that kidney biopsy lesions other than diabetic nephropathy may be a cause of proteinuria. We found that patients with a report of DN alone had a much longer duration of diabetes. (Acta Med Colomb 2022; 47. DOI:https://doi.org/10.36104/amc.2022.2231).