Rationale and design of the Innsbruck Diabetic Kidney Disease Cohort (IDKDC)-a prospective study investigating etiology and progression of early-stage chronic kidney disease in type 2 diabetes.

Background: The development of chronic kidney disease (CKD) in about 20%-40% of patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D) aggravates cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Pathophysiology is of increasing relevance for individual management and prognosis, though it is largely unknown among T2D patients with CKD as histologic work-up is not routinely performed upon typical clinical presentation. However, as clinical parameters do not appropriately reflect underlying kidney pathology, reluctance regarding timely histologic assessment in T2D patients with CKD should be critically questioned.