Association of systolic blood pressure and pulse pressure with microalbuminuria in treatment-naïve hypertensive patients

Introduction: To investigate the association between blood pressure components and microalbuminuria (MAU) in newly diagnosed and treatment-nave hypertensive patients. Material and methods: A total of 1858 newly diagnosed and treatment-nave hypertensive patients were enrolled. Based on 24 h urine albumin concentration, all patients were divided into MAU and normo-albuminuria groups. The associations between blood pressure (BP) components, namely systolic/diastolic BP (SBP/DBP) and pulse pressure (PP) and MAU, as well as the sensitivity and specificity of each BP component in predicting MAU, were evaluated. Results: Compared to the normo-albuminuria group, patients in the MAU group were older and had significantly higher SBP and PP (p < 0.05). Serum levels of fasting blood glucose, total protein and creatinine were significantly higher in the MAU group (p < 0.05). 24-hour urine albumin excretion was significantly higher in the MAU group than the normo-albuminuria group (182.5 156.5 mg vs. 17.6 7.1 mg, p < 0.001). Logistic regression analyses revealed that SBP and PP were significantly associated with MAU, with an odds ratio (OR) of 1.010 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.005-1.016, p < 0.001) in SBP and OR of 1.009 (95% CI: 1.003-1.015, p = 0.003) in PP. The receiver operating characteristic curve showed that the area under the curve for SBP to predict MAU was 0.541 0.013, and PP was 0.536 0.013. The difference in predicting MAU by SBP or PP was non-significant. Conclusions: In newly diagnosed and treatment-nave hypertensive patients, increased SBP and PP were independently associated with MAU.