NONDIABETIC RENAL-DISEASE IN NONINSULIN-DEPENDENT DIABETICS IN A SOUTH INDIAN HOSPITAL

Eighty patients with non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus being tre ated in a south Indian hospital were biopsied to confirm suspected non diabetic renal disease (NDRD). The positive predictive value of the st andard clinical indicators for NDRD in the presence or absence of diab etic retinopathy was 54 and 87%, respectively. These values are higher than those given by comparable studies in Western populations. This i s probably due to a higher prevalence of NDRD in the population of sou th India, and especially of proliferative glomerulonephritis, which wa s found in 21.5% of the patients studied. Standard clinical predictors of NDRD in diabetics have a high predictive value in the tropics wher e there is a high prevalence of proliferative glomerulonephritis.