Prevalence and association of microalbuminuria in essential hypertensive patients.
BACKGROUND
Microalbuminuria in hypertension has been described as an early sign of kidney damage and a predictor for end stage renal disease and cardiovascular disease. Thus, it is of great importance to study urinary albumin creatinine ratio and progression of kidney disease in hypertensive patients.


OBJECTIVE
The present study was undertaken to find out the prevalence and association of microalbuminuria in newly diagnosed essential hypertension.


METHODS
Newly diagnosed essential hypertensive cases (n = 106) and normotensive controls (n = 106) were enrolled. Hypertension was defined according to Joint national committee-VII definitions. Microalbuminuria was measured using an U-Albumin (NycoCard, Norway) and adjusted for urine creatinine. Descriptive statistics and testing of hypothesis were used for the analysis using SPSS 16 software.


RESULTS
51.88% of hypertension cases and 13.2% of normotensive controls had microalbuminuria in total population (odds ratio 7.086, P-value <0.001). 46.67% of cases and 12.08% of controls had microalbuminuria in male population (odds ratio 6.375, P-value <0.001). Similarly, 58.7% of cases and 14.58% of controls had microalbuminuria in female population (odds ratio 8.32, P-value <0.001).


CONCLUSIONS
By showing strong association between microalbuminuria and hypertension, our findings suggest that microalbuminuria could be a useful marker to assess risk management of cardiovascular disease and renal disease.
Department of Biochemsitry, Manipal College of Medical Sciences, Pokhara, Nepal.
Bibek
B
Poudel
Binod Kumar
BK
Yadav
Ashwini Kumar
AK
Nepal
Bharat
B
Jha
Kanak Bahadur
KB
Raut