Presence of Non-Diabetic Kidney Diseases in Biopsy Specimens of Diabetic Patients’ Single Center Experience

The complications of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) are well known and one of them is diabetic chronic kidney disease (DCKD). Over time, it has become clear that patients with T2DM can have nondiabetic chronic kidney diseases (NDCKD), especially those that affect the glomeruli. Clinical indicators for identifying DCKD from NDCKD with high sensitivity and specificity have not yet been identified. Therefore, kidney biopsy remains the golden standard for DCKD diagnosis in patients with T2DM. Despite some indications for kidney biopsy, criteria for a biopsy differ between countries, regions, and doctors. The aim of the study was to analyze the biopsy findings in our T2DM population and the justification of the biopsy according to widely accepted criteria. This single center retrospective study analyzed data from 74 patients with T2DM who underwent kidney biopsy from January 2014 to January 2021. According to the biopsy data, we categorized31 patients in the DN group, patients with typical diabetic glomerulopathy, 11 patients in the mixed group, patients who had pathohistological elements for both DN and non-DN glomerulopathy, and 32 patients in the non-DN group, patients with primary glomerulopathy not linked with DM. In the non-DN and mixed groups, the most frequent glomerulopathy was mesangioproliferative glomerulonephritis, including IgA and non-IgA forms, found in 10 patients, and membranous nephropathy (MN) in 10 patients. We analyzed several parameters and only the amount of proteinuria was found to be significantly linked to biopsy findings related to DN. With the existing criteria for kidney biopsy, we managed to detect changes in the kidneys in about half of our patients with T2DM. These patients required specific treatment, different from that which we use for DCKD patients.