Microalbuminuria (MA) is a marker for cardiovascular (CV) risk in young adults.
ASN 30th Annual Meeting, San Antonio
J Am Soc Nephrol (Oct) 8:314A 1997
Microalbuminuria in an accepted indicator of the presence of diabetic nephropathy risk. However the association of microalbuminuria with essential hypertension is also well established though its long term predictive value for renal disease is unknown. The cause of microalbuminuria is unknown but is probably related to hyperfiltration, and perhaps a systemic vascular derangement.
The authors studied 215 young adults with mean age 23.6 years. They were part of a group followed by annual BP measurement. A group of subjects from the upper third with higher BP was matched 2:1 (for race and sex) with subjects from the lower 2/3 of the BP distribution. They found that the group with over 10 µg/min consisted of only nine subjects. When compared to the other 206 subjects with microalbumin excretion less than 10 µg/min, the high albumin excretors had higher systolic and diastolic blood pressures. Interestingly, the subjects in the high microalbumin excretion group also had higher weight, and fasting serum insulin and triglyceride levels.
Comment: The authors then speculate that such differences may allow the use of microalbumin measurement to be an identifier of future cardiovascular risk. This is very interesting data although only a small number of subjects were identified with microalbumin levels above 10 µg/min. (George Mansoor, M.D., University of Connecticut)
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ASN 30th Annual Meeting, San Antonio
H: Pathophysiology : Kidney in hypertension
H: Diagnosis : Young adult through middle age