Presence of Cardiometabolic Risk Factors Is Not Associated with Microalbuminuria in 14-to-20-Years Old Slovak Adolescents: A Cross-Sectional, Population Study

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 10; no. 6; p. e0129311
• Main Authors: Gurecká, Radana, Koborová, Ivana, Šebek, Jozef, Šebeková, Katarína
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 05.06.2015; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adolescents; Adults; Albuminuria - epidemiology; Albuminuria - urine; Anthropometry; Biomarkers - blood; Biomarkers - urine; Blood; Blood Glucose - metabolism; Blood Pressure; Body Mass Index; Cardiovascular diseases; Cardiovascular Diseases - blood; Cardiovascular Diseases - urine; Creatinine; Creatinine - blood; Creatinine - urine; Cross-Sectional Studies; Female; Girls; Glucose; Health aspects; Health risks; Homeostasis; Homocysteine; Humans; Inflammation; Insulin - blood; Insulin resistance; Male; Mortality; Obesity; Population studies; Population Surveillance - methods; Population-based studies; Prevalence; Renal function; Reproducibility of Results; Risk analysis; Risk Assessment - methods; Risk Assessment - statistics & numerical data; Risk Factors; Serum Albumin - metabolism; Slovakia - epidemiology; Students; Systematic review; Teenagers; Uric acid; Young Adult; Youth; Slovakia; Japan
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0129311

In adults, microalbuminuria indicates generalized endothelial dysfunction, and is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular and all cause mortality. Slovak adults present one of the highest cardiovascular mortality rates in Europe. Thus Slovak adolescents are on a high-risk to develop cardiovascular afflictions early, and screening for microalbuminuria might be useful in early assessment of their cardiovascular risk. We aimed to study the prevalence of microalbuminuria in Slovak adolescents, and the association of urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio (ACR) to cardiovascular risk factors. Anthropometric data, blood pressure, blood count, glucose homeostasis, lipid profile, renal function, inflammatory status, concentrations of homocysteine and uric acid were determined and associated with ACR in 2 666 adolescents (49.4% boys, 51.6% girls) aged 14-to-20 years. Microalbuminuria was classified as ACR 2.5-25.0 mg/mmol in boys and 3.5-35.0 mg/mmol in girls. Prevalence of microalbuminuria in both genders reached 3.3%, and did not differ significantly between lean and centrally obese subjects. Girls presented higher ACR than boys (normoalbuminuric: 0.6 ± 0.5 mg/mmol vs. 0.5 ± 0.4 mg/mmol, p > 0.001; microalbuminuric: 9.3 ± 7.3 mg/mmol vs. 5.0 ± 3.8 mg/mmol; p > 0.001). Microalbuminuric adolescents and those presenting normoalbuminuria within the upper ACR quartile were slimmer than their normoalbuminuric counterparts or adolescents with normoalbuminuria within the lower quartile, respectively. No association between microalbuminuria and cardiovascular risk markers was revealed. Results obtained in this study do not support our assumption that ACR associates with cardiometabolic risk factors in apparently healthy adolescents. Follow-up studies until adulthood are needed to estimate the potential cardiometabolic risk of apparently healthy microalbuminuric adolescents.