[Incidence of diabetic nephropathy in the province of Badajoz along the period from 1990 to 1994].

Current registries provide information only on the number of diabetic patients with end-stage renal failure, more detailed information on the incidence of diabetic nephropathy with incipient renal failure is currently not available. The Nephrology Service of Hospital Infanta Cristina in Badajoz serves a population of approximately 650,000. In the time span between 1.1.90 and 31.12.94 the outpatient clinic and the renal ward had 1,717 admissions for evaluation of renal illness, 166 due to diabetic nephropathy (9.7% of total. Twelve (7.2%) were type I diabetics (mean age, 29.9 +/- 6.2 years), and 154 were type II diabetics (mean age 63.4 +/- 9.8 years). The annual incidence increased from 41.5/mio in 1990 to 61.5/mio in 1994. In parallel, 286 patients were admitted for renal replacement therapy, i.e. 88/mio/year. Of this group 60 patients had diabetes: type I, 8 patients (13.3%, mean age 3.7 +/- 6.4); type II, 52 patients (86.7%, mean age 66.0 +/- 6.6 years). This corresponds to an admission rate for dialysis of 18.5/mio/year (19.6% of all patients), with a increasing incidence rate from 13.8/mio in 1990 to 23.1/mio in 1994. This incidence of diabetic nephropathy is more than two-fold greater than the previously reported incidence by the EDTA registry for Spain, it is six-fold greater that the figure recorded for our region. Although the rates of incidence and prevalence of renal failure due to diabetic nephropathy founded in this study seems still to be lower than those of other developed european countries, it is detected a trend toward an increase of these figures in the latter years.