Key result
Hypertension linked to ~21% higher serum NGAL levels despite normal creatinine.
Why the study?
Hypertension often causes subclinical renal and cardiovascular damage before detection by conventional parameters like serum creatinine, and neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) has been proposed as an early indicator of hypertension-associated renal injury.
Does serum neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) detect subclinical hypertensive nephropathy in hypertensive patients with normal conventional renal indices compared to healthy controls?
Case-Control (n=200)
No
Does serum neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) detect subclinical hypertensive nephropathy in hypertensive patients with normal conventional renal indices compared to healthy controls?
Serum NGAL is significantly elevated in hypertensive patients with normal serum creatinine and correlates with blood pressure and atherogenic lipids, supporting its potential utility as a sex-independent early biomarker for subclinical hypertensive nephropathy.
Answers are grounded in this paper and cite their sources.
Elevated NGAL may indicate subclinical hypertensive nephropathy; hypothesis-generating in this case-control study and requires prospective validation.
Background: An estimated 1.28 billion people worldwide suffer from hypertension, which often causes subclinical renal and cardiovascular damage prior to its detection using conventional parameters such as serum creatinine. Neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL), which is secreted by tubular epithelial and immune cells upon inflammation and tubular stress, has been proposed to be an early indicator of renal injury associated with hypertension. Objective: To compare serum NGAL levels between hypertensive patients and healthy controls, and to evaluate its association with blood pressure, lipid profile, and standard renal indices. Methods: This case-control study was conducted by the Departments of Biochemistry and Medicine, and comprised 200 participants aged 40 years and older; 100 hypertensive patients and 100 age-matched healthy controls. Blood pressure, fasting glucose, lipid profile, urea, creatinine and serum NGAL were measured in all participants, while Spearman's rank correlation was used to assess the associations between NGAL and the rest of the parameters. Results: Serum NGAL was found to be significantly higher among hypertensive patients (98.80 ± 13.29 ng/mL) as compared to the controls (81.55 ± 5.25 ng/mL; p < 0.001), with similar patterns seen in both genders. NGAL was positively correlated with systolic blood pressure (rs = 0.519), diastolic blood pressure (rs = 0.480), and total cholesterol (rs = 0.392, all p < 0.001), as well as triglycerides, VLDL and LDL (p < 0.01), while serum creatinine was found to be similar between the two groups. Conclusion: The increased serum NGAL observed among hypertensive patients with normal conventional renal parameters, as well as its association with blood pressure and atherogenic lipids, suggests that it could be used as an early, sex-independent, biomarker of subclinical hypertensive nephropathy.
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Duvedi et al. (2026) conducted a case-control in Hypertension / Hypertensive Nephropathy (n=200). Hypertension vs. Healthy normotensive controls was evaluated on Serum neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) levels (ng/mL) (p=<0.001). Hypertension was associated with higher serum NGAL levels compared to healthy controls despite normal serum creatinine.
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