Study of the Prevalence of Microalbuminuria in Patients of Essential Hypertension and its Correlation with Left Ventricular Hypertrophy and Carotid Artery Intima-media Thickness

Background: Limited evidence is available among Indian patients regarding significance of microalbuminuria (MA) in context of hypertension and future cardiovascular morbidity. Therefore, the current study was undertaken to determine the prevalence of MA in hypertensive patients and to examine its correlation with severity of hypertension, left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH), and common carotid intima-media thickness (CCIMT). Material and Methods: Fifty treatment-naïve hypertensive patients (16–80 years of age) were prospectively enrolled. All patients underwent basic metabolic profile, urine evaluation, echocardiography, and measurement of CCIMT, and the data were evaluated. Results: MA (defined as urinary albumin excretion in the range of 30–300 mg/24 h) was present in 44% of patients with newly detected essential hypertension. A significant number of patients with MA had abnormally high mean left ventricular mass index as compared to those without MA. In addition, a positive correlation was also observed between MA and LVH. Furthermore, mean CCIMT was found to be higher in patients with MA (P < 0.001), with 69.2% of the patients with MA having elevated mean CCIMT. The CCIMT had a positive correlation with both MA and LVH. Conclusions: This study demonstrates the presence of MA in a significant number of newly detected and untreated patients of essential hypertension. Further, MA had a statistically significant relationship with LVH and CCIMT. Thus, screening of all recently diagnosed patients of essential hypertension for MA may be a reasonable strategy to predict the presence of future cardiovascular risk.