title: Impact of the severity of obesity on microalbuminuria in obese normotensive nondiabetic individuals.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Microalbuminuria has been now recognized as the most important risk factor for the increased morbidity and mortality in the obese population.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  We aimed to know whether severity of obesity is associated with the presence of renal injury while microalbuminuria acts, independent of other risk factors as hypertension and diabetes mellitus.
  
  
  METHODS
  The current cross-sectional study was conducted on consecutive obese normotensive nondiabetic individuals. Two groups of adult individuals were selected as controls comprised of 161 obese adults with body mass index (BMI) 30-35 kg/m(2) and 25 very obese adults as cases with BMI more than 35 kg/m(2). Microalbuminuria was defined as abnormal urinary albumin to creatinine ratio (UACR) more than 30 mg/g of creatinine.
  
  
  RESULTS
  No significant differences in serum creatinine level, urinary albumin concentration, as well as UACR between obese and very obese individuals was seen. Using Pearson correlation coefficient analysis, no significant correlation was observed between BMI and parameters of renal function. Microalbuminuria was more prevalent in very obese individuals compared with obese group (24.0% versus 9.9%, P = 0.043) in univariate analysis.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Severe obesity compared with milder obesity status cannot predict the occurrence of increased urinary albumin excretion and microalbuminuria.
authors.affiliation: Nephrology Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Farzanehsadat
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Minoo
authors.affiliation: Nephrology Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran ; Iranian Tissue Bank and Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Mitra
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mahdavi-Mazdeh
authors.affiliation: Nephrology Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Mohamad-Reza
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Abbasi
authors.affiliation: Nephrology Research Center, Tehran Municipally, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Shahram
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sohrabi
keywords: Body mass index; Diabetes Hypertension; Microalbuminuria; Obesity