An association of a variety of cardiovascular risk factors with low grade albuminuria in Korean men.
BACKGROUND
Recent studies have challenged the original definition of microalbuminuria when used to assess the risk of coronary heart disease or death. However, no large study has been conducted on Asian subjects regarding this topic to date. Therefore, we investigated the relationship between albuminuria below 17 microg/mg and other cardiovascular risk factors in apparently healthy Korean men.


METHODS
We enrolled 2474 men with albuminuria below 17 microg/mg to participate in this study. We evaluated a variety of cardiovascular risk factors as well as the urine albumin creatinine ratio (UACR). The subjects were stratified into five groups by their UACR values and comparisons were made among the five groups.


RESULTS
The comparisons showed that the UACR was progressively higher in subjects with a larger waist circumference and BMI as well as higher values for: serum triglyceride, glucose, hsCRP, and the systolic BP, in addition to a higher prevalence of diabetes and metabolic syndrome. When we excluded subjects with hypertension and diabetes, the results were similar.


CONCLUSIONS
Our findings suggest that low grade albuminuria in Korean men was associated with a variety of cardiovascular risk factors, and this finding was unchanged when we excluded subjects with diabetes and hypertension. Further studies are warranted to evaluate the clinical implications of our findings.
Sung
Ki Chul
KC
Division of Cardiology, Kangbuk Samsung Hospital, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Pyung Dong, Jongro-Ku, Seoul, 110-746, Korea. Electronic address: kcmd.sung@samsung.com.
Kim
Byung Jin
BJ
Division of Cardiology, Kangbuk Samsung Hospital, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Pyung Dong, Jongro-Ku, Seoul, 110-746, Korea.
Ryu
Seungho
S
Department of Occupational Medicine, Kangbuk Samsung Hospital, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
D000328:Adult; D000419:Albuminuria / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000208:ethnology; D015415:Biomarkers; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000208:ethnology / Q000652:urine*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000208:ethnology / Q000652:urine*; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000208:ethnology / Q000652:urine*; D007723:Korea / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D024821:Metabolic Syndrome / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000208:ethnology / Q000652:urine*; D008875:Middle Aged
D015415:Biomarkers