Relationship between metabolic syndrome and proteinuria in the Japanese population

Objective We investigated the link between metabolic syndrome and proteinuria in Japanese. Methods A total of 12,023 Japanese subjects, aged 20-79 years, were recruited in a cross-sectional clinical investigation study. From this group, we used data of 2,121 subjects for further investigation. Proteinuria was measured by using urine strip devices. The diagnosis of metabolic syndrome was based on the new criterion in Japan. Results In the first analysis, 224 men (6.0%) and 359 women (4.3%) were diagnosed as trace positive (+/-) and 155 men (4.1%) and 147 women (1.8%) were diagnosed as positive (+<=) with proteinuria. In the second analysis, 264 men (29.7%) and 45 women (3.7%) were diagnosed as metabolic syndrome. Prevalence of proteinuria in subjects with metabolic syndrome was significantly higher than that in subjects with non metabolic syndrome in both sexes. In addition, the atherogenic index was significantly higher in subjects with metabolic syndrome than in subjects with non-metabolic syndrome. Conclusion The present study indicated that metabolic syndrome might be an important factor in the etiology of proteinuria in Japanese.