Diabetes mellitus is a chronic metabolic disorder characterized by hyperglycemia resulting from insulin resistance and insufficiency which may be associated with a wide range of complications if untreated such as nephropathy, retinopathy, neuropathy and also increase the risk of cardiovascular disease.
One major cause of morbidity and mortality in persons with diabetes is diabetic nephropathy, which is the leading cause of chronic kidney disease (CKD) and end-stage renal disease worldwide.
Copeptin, the C-terminal fragment of arginine vasopressin prohormone represents the release of AVP and is considered to be a reliable surrogate marker for AVP. Copeptin has shown association with development of chronic kidney disease (CKD) in people with diabetes. Early detection of individuals having the highest risk could help avoid this complication.
The current study aimed to determine the association of plasma copeptin, a surrogate of vasopressin, with the incidence of diabetic nephropathy in Type 2 diabetes mellitus.
The study was conducted at the internal medicine and clinical pathology departments of Benha University Hospitals from November 2018 to May 2019 on 60 patients with diabetes mellitus type 2 and 20 apparently healthy subjects serving as a control group .
Patients were further subdivided into two groups : (Group I) Diabetic patients with nephropathy and (Group II) Diabetic patients without nephropathy