Antihypertensive treatment in type II diabetes and diabetic nephropathy

Hypertension is very prevalent in patients with type ii diabetes. Beside in creasing the cardiovascular risk, hypertension has several deleterious effe cts on the kidney: hypertension promotes the development of diabetic nephro pathy, the progression from microalbuminuria to overt diabetic nephropathy and progression to end stage renal disease. In this review, we analyze systematically the benefit of antihypertensive t herapy in patients with type II diabetes, with either normoalbuminuria, mic roalbuminuria or overt nephropathy. General considerations are developped about the general use of antihyperten sive drugs in this population. An approach based on the prevention of the g lobals or absolute cardiovascular risk is further recommended due to the ve ry high cardiovascular burden in this diabetic patients.