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

Introduction: To investigate the association between blood pressure components and microalbuminuria (MAU) in newly diagnosed and treatment-naive hypertensive patients. Material and methods: A total of 1858 newly diagnosed and treatment-naive 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-naive hypertensive patients, increased SBP and PP were independently associated with MAU.