Kidney disease and loss of kidney function affects 12 in every 100 people in Ireland, most commonly due to diabetes. Not everybody with kidney damage due to diabetes will develop kidney failure. People with diabetes and the highest risk of kidney failure should be targeted with drug treatments to lower blood pressure and reduce kidney injury. Identifying which people with diabetes have the highest risk of kidney failure remains a big challenge. This project will test whether measuring 3 proteins in the blood of patients with diabetes can identify those with the highest risk of progressive kidney disease over 5 year follow-up. These proteins were measured on stored blood samples from 201 patients with diabetes enrolled in a follow-up study in Galway during 2016 and 2017. The proteins were measured at the same time through a test called ‘PromarkerD’. The PromarkerD test was found to predict risk of kidney disease in people with diabetes in Australia.
We will test if these 3 proteins identify risk of kidney disease in people with diabetes here in Ireland. We will also check if the 3 proteins predict risk of heart disease and early death in people with diabetes.
Our study will help us to better understand how well these 3 blood proteins help to identify people with diabetes with the highest risk of kidney disease. Our findings may strengthen the case for using these proteins during routine care of patients with diabetes to guide use of drug treatments to lower kidney disease risk.
