Intensive Diabetes Therapy Reduces Risk of Impaired GFR in DCCT/EDIC Studies

PHILADELPHIA—The long-term risk of an impaired glomerular fi ltration rate (GFR) was 50% lower among patients with type 1 diabetes who were treated early with intensive diabetes therapy compared with those treated with conventional diabetes therapy, according to two interrelated studies reported simultaneously here at the late-breaking clinical trials session of the American Society of Nephrology Kidney Week 2011 (LB-OR05) and as an online-fi rst publication in the New England Journal of Medicine. “This study provides the fi rst direct evidence that intensive glycemic control can prevent loss of GFR in type 1 diabetes,” said Joachim Ix, MD, MAS, of the Division of Nephrology–Hypertension at the University of California, San Diego. “This is remarkable, as before now, no prior study of any intervention has proven to prevent loss of GFR in type 1 diabetes.” The Diabetes Control and Complications Trial (DCCT) was designed as a multicenter clinical trial of patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus, enrolling a total of 1,441 participants • ASN KIDNEY WEEK •