In Metabolic Syndrome, Microalbuminuria a Risk Marker

Could be used as tool for stratification of subgroup without diabetes at higher CVD risk

THURSDAY, Nov. 4 (HealthDay News) -- The presence of microalbuminuria is an additional marker that can identify a high-risk subset of patients without diabetes who have the metabolic syndrome, according to research published in the Oct. 1 issue of the American Journal of Cardiology.

Luis Afonso, M.D., of Wayne State University in Detroit, and colleagues conducted a post hoc analysis of 5,809 individuals without diabetes from the Multiethnic Study of Atherosclerosis. The participants were divided into four groups on the basis of the presence or absence of metabolic syndrome and microalbuminuria.

Compared with the other groups, the group of participants having both metabolic syndrome and microalbuminuria had a consistently stronger association with markers of systemic inflammation, subclinical atherosclerosis, and most cardiovascular end points. The authors concluded that stratification by the presence of microalbuminuria can help identify a high-risk group of individuals without diabetes within the population of those with the metabolic syndrome.

"A possibility always exists of unmeasured confounders and residual confounding affecting the study results. Such issues are inherent limitations of observational cohort studies," the authors write. "Nevertheless, microalbuminuria represents a simple, but useful, clinical tool that might help identify a high-risk subgroup of non-diabetic persons with the metabolic syndrome."

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