Study on Prevalence of Microalbuminuria in newly diagnosed non-Diabetic essential Hypertension Patients in tertiary care Hospitals in South India

Background: Hypertension affects about one billion individuals worldwide. The prevalence of hypertension has increased over the past decade, reaching an alarming level of 25% among the general population in the United States and an even higher percentage in Europe. It is an established risk factor for the development of cerebral, cardiac, and renal events. Microalbuminuria, defined as urine albumin excretion of 30 -300gm/L of 24 hrs urine or 20 -200 mg/min in a random or timed urine sample is now considered as an early marker of progressive renal damage and also an independent risk factor for Cardio vascular disease (CAD). The present study was conducted in order to test the usefulness of estimating microalbuminuria in non-diabetic essential hypertension patients as early as at the time of diagnosis of hypertension. Materials and Methods: This is cross sectional study. The study was conducted during the period May 2018 to July 2019 in the Department of General Medicine, Tertiary Care Hospitals in South India. Results: The percentage of normal, high normal and microalbuminuria in the control group are 36%, 52% and 12% respectively while that in hypertension group is 12%, 42% and 46% respectively. There was a significant positive correlation between prevalence of microalbuminuria and blood pressure values, both systolic and diastolic blood pressure Conclusion: Microalbuminuria, a marker of CVD and Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) burden, is a useful non-invasive screening tool in identifying the hypertensive patients with a high risk of developing cardiac and renal complications.