ميكروآلبومينوري و ارتباط با عوامل خطرساز بيماري هاي قلبي -عروقي در افراد به ظاهر سالم

MICROALBUMINURIA AND ITS RELATIONSHIP TO CARDIOVASCULAR RISK FACTORS IN CLINICALLY HEALTHYʹ SUBJECTS

Background & Aim: Microalbuminuria has been recently proposed as a marker of cardiovascular risk factor, but the underlying mechanisms are still poorly understood. The prevalence of this condition in clinically healthy subjects varies widely from 5% to 55% in different populations. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of microalbuminuria and its relation to established cardiovascular risk factors in a group of healthy subjects. Materials and Methods: 280 of 360 subjects that consecutively referred to clinical laboratory for check-up program were selected. The albumin/creatinine concentration ratio (ACR) in the morning urine specimens was calculated as an index of albumin excretion rate. Subjects were divided in normal and microalbuminuria groups. Cardiovascular risk factors, such as hypertension, body mass index, lipids and lipoproteins compared in two groups. We used t-test for comparison of lipids and lipoproteins, and U-test for lipoprotein-a in two groups. For distribution frequency of qualitative variable and determination of coefficient variation of microalbuminuria to other variable, chi-square and correlation test were used respectively. Results: A total of 140 out of 280 subjects (57%) were from to have microalbuminuria. Subjects with microalbuminuria had significantly higher values in prevalence of hypertension (56.5% vs. 17.4%), and plasma triglycerides (TG) concentration (220 +/- 120 mg/dl vs. 187 +/144 mg/dl, p= 0.01) in comparison to normoalbuminuria. No statistically significant differences were found between other risk factors such as plasma total cholesterol, low density lipoprotein- cholesterol (LDL-C), and Lp(a) in two groups. Discussion: we concluded that our study population had relatively high frequency of microalbuminuria. In addition albumin excretion rate was associated to hypertension and plasma TG, but not related to total cholesterol and cholesterol transfer lipoproteins.