Prevalence of microalbuminuria and association with cardiovascular risk factors in a Spanish Mediterranean area

BACKGROUND:The primary objective of this study was to know the prevalence of microalbuminuria (mAlb) in a general population from the Spanish Mediterranean area along with its association with other cardiovascular risk factors (CRF). PATIENTS RND METHOD: We studied 399 consecutive patients who were classified in mAlb+ or mAlb-, depending on whether their mAlb war higher or lower than 30 mg/day, respectively. RESULTS: Thirty-seven patients (9.3% of the general population) were mAlb positive. Twenty-one percent of them were males with hypertension. The presence of mAlb was positively correlated with age, systolic blood pressure, body mass index, waist-to-hip ratio, pulse pressure, HDL cholesterol, triglycerides, glycemia and serum creatinine. The level of mAlb was 12.9 (11.2) (mg/day) in non-hypertensive non diabetic individuals, while it war 14.1 (16.5) in diabetic non-hypertensive subjects, 22.5 (53.5) in hypertensive nondiabetic subjects and 27.7 (49.1) in diabetic individuals who were also hypertensive. Hypertension correlationed with the presence of mAlb with an odds ratio of 2.4 (CI 95%: 1.1-5.2) and the addition of a male gender increased the odds ratio to 3.8 (CI 95%: 1.8-8.1). CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of mAlb in the Spanish Mediterranean area appears to be low (9.3%), although it is especially high in hypertensive males with or without diabetes.