Vol. 1, Issue 1 (2012)

Author(s):
K.P. Sampath Kumar*, Debjit Bhowmik, Lokesh Deb, Shravan Paswan

Abstract:
Diabetic nephropathy is kidney disease that develops as a result of diabetes mellitus (DM). DM, also called simply diabetes. This disease damages many organs, including the eyes, nerves, blood vessels, heart, and kidneys. Diabetes is the most common cause of kidney failure and accounts for over one-third of all patients who are on dialysis. Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is typically defined by macro albuminuria—that is, a urinary albumin excretion of more than 300 mg in a 24-hour collection—or macro albuminuria and abnormal renal function as represented by an abnormality in serum creatinine, calculated creatinine clearance, or glomerular filtration rate (GFR). Clinically, diabetic nephropathy is characterized by a progressive increase in proteinuria and decline in GFR, hypertension, and a high risk of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Nephropathy means kidney disease or damage. Diabetic nephropathy is damage to your kidneys caused by diabetes. In severe cases it can lead to kidney failure. But not everyone with diabetes has kidney damage .The kidneys have many tiny blood vessels that filter waste from your blood. High blood sugar from diabetes can destroy these blood vessels. Over time, the kidney isn't able to do its job as well. Later it may stop working completely. This is called kidney failure. Certain things make you more likely to get diabetic nephropathy. If you also have high blood pressure or high cholesterol, or if you smoke, your risk is higher. There are no symptoms in the early stages. So it's important to have regular urine tests to find kidney damage early. Sometimes early kidney damage can be reversed. The first sign of kidney damage is a small amount of protein in the urine, which is found by a simple urine test. As damage to the kidneys gets worse, your blood pressure rises. Your cholesterol and triglyceride levels rise too. As your kidneys are less able to do their job, you may notice swelling in your body, at first in your feet and legs. Community pharmacist can take to increase their involvement and contribution to public health at a local level in collaboration with other public health. During this role shift, the competency of community pharmacists is in higher demand than ever before. In view of availability of numerous new medicines and drug delivery systems, community pharmacists are challenged to ensure that patients get maximum benefit from their medicines. It is essential that discovery of new drug, new therapeutics effect of relatively older drugs, clinical trials, toxicological studies etc. are all carried out involving community pharmacy at different phases.