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This edition of the Journal focuses on the increasinglyimportant topic of kidney disease in diabetes. Althoughin the past, many healthcare professionals considered the outlook for patients with nephropathy complicating dia-betes to be hopeless, it is now clear that much can be done to help such individuals. Recent clinical trials have demonstrated that tight control of glycaemia and a reduction in blood pres-sure slow the progression of diabetic nephropathy and have verified clear benefits associated with the use of specific anti-hypertensive agents, notably angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors and angiotensin II receptor antagonists (AIIA).1 Despite the increasing use of these proven treatment regi-mens, diabetes mellitus has become the most important cause of end-stage kidney failure in industrialised countries. This is largely due to the worldwide epidemic of type 2 diabetes, which now accounts for approximately 90 % of diabetic patients presenting to nephrologists.2 Whilst the survival o