title: Microalbuminuria and uric acid in healthy subjects.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Microalbuminuria has been linked to cardiovascular (CV) risk in patients with diabetes or hypertension, and in an unselected general population; serum uric acid (UA) is emerging as a novel risk factor for CV disease. The aim of our study was to evaluate the prevalence of excess microalbuminuria and its relation to established CV risk factors and serum UA in healthy subjects.
  
  
  METHODS
  We screened 900 healthy blood donors (age range, 20-65 years; 747 men, 153 women), and measured total, HDL and LDL cholesterol, blood glucose, serum and urinary creatinine, serum UA, blood pressure (BP) and microalbuminuria (urinary albumin/creatinine ratio, ACR). The Framingham risk score was also calculated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  After excluding 52 participants, we found that in 848 participants (702 men, 146 women) the overall prevalence of excess ACR, using a 30 mg/g creatinine cutoff, was 9.3% (9.7% of men, 7.5% of women, p=0.16); adopting a gender-dependent cutoff, we found that the overall prevalence was 13.6% (15.1% of men, 6.2% of women, p<0.01). ACR was highly correlated to diastolic (r=0.88, p<0.001) and systolic (r=0.74, p<0.001) BP, and also--though not as strongly--to serum UA (r=0.38, p<0.001). In a stepwise multiple regression model, systolic and diastolic BP, total cholesterol, serum creatinine and UA were segregated as independent predictors of microalbuminuria (model R=0.91, R square=0.83). Correlation of serum UA to ACR remained significant, albeit attenuated (r=0.09, p=0.02), after adjustment for serum creatinine, total cholesterol, systolic and diastolic BP.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results of our study show ACR to be abnormal in a significant proportion of seemingly healthy subjects, and serum UA to be an independent predictor of microalbuminuria.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nephrology, San Giovanni Battista Hospital, Foligno, Perugia, Italy. bellomopg@tin.it
authors.forename: Gianni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bellomo
authors.forename: Pietro
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Berardi
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Saronio
authors.forename: Claudio
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Verdura
authors.forename: Antonella
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Esposito
authors.forename: Alessandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Laureti
authors.forename: Sandro
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Venanzi
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Timio
authors.forename: Mario
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Timio
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000419:Albuminuria / Q000097:blood / Q000150:complications*; D001794:Blood Pressure; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000209:etiology; D003404:Creatinine / Q000097:blood / Q000652:urine; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D014527:Uric Acid / Q000097:blood*
chemical_list: D014527:Uric Acid; D003404:Creatinine