Abstract:
Background: Hypertension is a common asymptomatic disease which is a growing issue of
public today. Microalbuminuria in hypertensive patients reflects systemic dysfunction of
vascular endothelium, blood pressure control, changing of vascular permeability and
haemostasis. Detection of microalbuminuria may help to identify early risk of
cardiovascular diseases in hypertensive patients.
Objectives: This study was carried out to determine the correlation between
microalbuminuria and blood pressure in non-diabetic hypertensive patients.
Methodology: A cross sectional study was carried out among 98 randomly selected non diabetic hypertensive patients of age group between 35-85 years attending to family practice
centre, University of Sri Jayewardenepura. Morning mid-stream urine sample, negative for
proteinuria was used to calculate microalbumin to creatinine ratio. Microalbumin in urine
was measured by a turbidimetric immunoassay method. The creatinine level in serum was
estimated using a colorimetric kinetic method. Blood pressure, weight and height were
measured and socio-demographic characteristics were noted by interviewer administered
questionnaire. Data evaluation was done by independent sample t-test and Pearson
correlation.
Results and Conclusions: There were 75 males and 25 females in the study population. The
mean (SD) age and body mass index (BMI) of the subjects were 62.11 (8.22) years and
25.73 (5.15) Kg/m2
respectively. The prevalence of microalbuminuria was found as 21%.
Out of the subjects with microalbuminuria, 66.6% were females and 33.3% were males.
Statistically significant weak positive correlations were found between microalbuminuria
and systolic blood pressure (r=0.27, p=0.007), and microalbuminuria and diastolic blood
pressure (r= 0.28, p=0.004). The mean (SD) of the diastolic blood pressure of subjects with
microalbuminuria (89.52 (9.2)) is significantly higher (p=0.003) when compared to diastolic
blood pressure of subjects with normoalbuminuria (82.47 (9.9)). There was no correlation of
microalbuminuria with age (r=0.009, p=0.92), body mass index (r=0.08, p=0.4).
Microalbuminuria was associated with blood pressure. There was no statistically significant
association of microalbuminuria with age and body mass index.
