Minutolo R, et al. - Researchers investigated if diabetes mellitus (DM) per se or the extent of proteinuria dictates the prognosis of coexisting DM and chronic kidney disease (DM-CKD). For this purpose, they performed a pooled analysis of four prospective studies in patients with CKD treated with drugs inhibiting the renin-angiotensin system. Among patients with (n=693) and without DM (n=1,481) stratified by proteinuria level (< 0.15, 0.15-0.49, 0.5-1, and > 1 g/day), the researchers compared the risk of all-cause mortality, fatal and non-fatal cardiovascular events, and end-stage renal disease (ESRD). They found no higher cardiorenal risk among patients with non-proteinuric DM-CKD. In contrast, they observed a higher risk of mortality and cardiovascular events in relation to the presence of moderate proteinuria and DM per se. They also found that ESRD risk was modulated by the entity of abnormal proteinuria independent of DM.