Diabetic patients should have better blood pressure control!

  Some middle-aged and elderly diabetic patients usually think they are in good health, but when they go to the hospital for physical examination, they are found to be suffering from primary hypertension combined with diabetic nephropathy. In fact, they are suffering from hypertension syndrome, and this is not a small number of cases. Patients with hypertension syndrome are most likely to hurt their kidneys, and regular urine tests and reasonable medication can effectively prevent it.  Diabetes is a lifelong disease that gradually worsens, and although it is painless at first, it is terrible because it “destroys” the function of every organ in the body without being noticed, and the kidneys are one of the important organs that can easily be “affected” by diabetes. Once a diabetic patient’s kidney function is damaged, the medical term is diabetic nephropathy. Patients with diabetic nephropathy may not experience any discomfort in the early stages, but as the disease worsens and kidney function gradually decreases, symptoms such as nausea and vomiting will appear, and at this point, dialysis treatment or kidney transplantation is often required. Early detection of hypertension combined with diabetic nephropathy and screening for microalbuminuria is crucial. Microalbuminuria refers to the presence of trace amounts of albumin in the urine. Albumin is a normal protein found in the blood and is usually present in only very small amounts in the urine. Once kidney function is impaired in patients with hypertension combined with diabetes, some albumin in the blood will be excreted in the urine. Screening for microalbuminuria is one of the most effective methods for early diagnosis of hypertension combined with diabetic nephropathy. In the United States, the Diabetes Society recommends systematic annual screening for microalbuminuria in patients with diabetes.  Once hypertension combined with diabetic nephropathy is detected at an early stage, it is especially important to choose reasonable antihypertensive drugs to interrupt the vicious cycle of hypertension and diabetic nephropathy since hypertension can aggravate the progression of diabetic nephropathy, and diabetic nephropathy in turn can further raise blood pressure. It is often said that “a thousand miles of dike is broken in an anthill”. Although microalbuminuria in the early stage of hypertension combined with diabetic nephropathy may seem insignificant, like a small anthill on a thousand-mile embankment, its development can lead to kidney failure, requiring dialysis or kidney transplantation. Treatment of early stage hypertension combined with diabetic nephropathy patients taking appropriate antihypertensive drugs such as angiotensin II receptor antagonists or angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors, it is possible to reduce or even eliminate microalbumin in the urine, “cut off” the natural course from early to late stage nephropathy, thus greatly reducing the risk of developing to late stage This greatly reduces the risk of developing advanced kidney disease.