title: Association of serum bilirubin levels with albuminuria in patients with essential hypertension.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study was undertaken to evaluate the relationship between serum bilirubin concentrations and the degree of urinary albumin excretion in hypertensive patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 120 hypertensive subjects were enrolled, in which 80 (67%) with normoalbuminuria (albumin excretion rate [AER] of <20μg/min), 30 (25%) with microalbuminuria (AER of 20-200μg/min) and 10 (8%) with macroalbuminuria (AER>200μg/min). Logarithmic (log) transformation of urinary albumin excretion was carried out before performing correlation and regression analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Patients with micro- or macroalbuminuria had significantly lower serum bilirubin concentrations (P=0.004). By multivariate regression analysis, serum bilirubin concentration was an independent determinant of albuminuria and had an inverse correlation with log (urinary albumin excretion) in hypertensive patients (β=-0.189, P=0.023).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These findings may partly explain the pathogenetic processes that link microalbuminuria and enhanced cardiovascular risk in hypertensive patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Taoyuan Veterans Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Shao-Sung
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Po-Hsun
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Kuang-Hsing
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Chiang
authors.forename: Jaw-Wen
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Shing-Jong
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Lin
mesh_terms: D000419:Albuminuria / Q000097:blood* / Q000150:complications* / Q000652:urine; D001663:Bilirubin / Q000097:blood*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000097:blood* / Q000150:complications* / Q000652:urine; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012044:Regression Analysis
chemical_list: D001663:Bilirubin