DKD

We retrospectively enrolled patients who were pathologically diagnosed with DKD following a renal biopsy at the Department of Nephrology, The First Hospital of Jilin University, between June 2019 and May 2023.
We collected patient history, including age, sex, height, weight, Body Mass Index (BMI), age at diabetes diagnosis, duration of diabetes, age at hypertension diagnosis, duration of hypertension, and hypertension grade. The duration of diabetes and hypertension was the interval from initial diagnosis to renal biopsy.
We also gathered renal biopsy pathology reports and the last laboratory test results available before the biopsy. These included: hemoglobin (Hb), platelet count (PLT), serum cholinesterase (ChE), serum albumin (Alb), blood urea nitrogen (BUN), serum creatinine (Scr), eGFR, serum uric acid (UA), fasting blood glucose (FBG), serum chloride (Cl), total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), serum phosphorus (Pi), 24-hour urine volume (24hUV), 24-hour urine protein (24hUP), 24-hour urinary microalbumin (MAU), α1 and β2 microglobulin, and immunoglobulin G (IgG). Additional blood tests included serum immunoglobulins (IgG, IgA, IgM), complements C3 and C4, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (CRP), glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), free triiodothyronine (FT3), free thyroxine (FT4), and urinary red blood cell count (URBC/HPF).The diagnosis of diabetes was based on the criteria of the American Diabetes Association. The eGFR was calculated using the Chronic Kidney Disease Epidemiology Collaboration (CKD-EPI) equation.
Follow-up records were collected from the Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system of The First Hospital of Jilin University. For patients who had regular follow-ups at our hospital, their records were used. Patients with no or insufficient follow-up records were contacted by telephone to confirm whether an endpoint event had occurred by May 2024, and the specific date of the event.
The composite endpoint was defined as all-cause mortality, initiation of regular dialysis, or receiving a renal transplant. If a patient experienced multiple endpoint events, the first event and its corresponding date were recorded for the analysis.