Nigerian Postgraduate Medical Journal (Jan 2014)
Clinical Usefulness of a timed overnight (8 hours) Urine Albumin (microalbumin) Excretion in monitor- ing treatment in benign essential hypertension
Abstract
Aims and objectives: This research aims to establish the usefulness of timed over- night (8 hours) Urine Albumin(microalbumin) Excretion (UAE), in monitoring therapy in Nigerian patients with benign essential hypertension. Subjects and Methods: The study population comprised 40 normotensives/con- trols, (23 males and 17 females) aged between 20-70 years, with a mean blood pressure 116/75mmHg, 30 well-controlled hypertensive patients, diastolic BP 100mmHg or MAP > 110mmHg. albumin(microalbumin) was determined on the 8 hours overnight urine samples by ELISA method using kit from Randox Laboratories Limited, N. Ireland Cat No. MA 1410. UAE was calculated from the urine albumin concentration, urine volume and collection time. The intra assay precision was determined by running 20 replicates of two kit controls in a single batch. The coefficient of variation was 6.6% at 10.70mg/L and 4.3% at 51.20mg/L. Results: The average UAE in the three groups were as follows: 12:22 +/- 4.65μg/ min, 21.50 +/- 10.5μg/min and 30.10 +/- 24.25 μg/min in the control, well con- trolled and poorly controlled groups respectively, 12.5% of normotensive sub- jects, 40% of well controlled and 56.7% of poorly controlled patients were found to have microalbuminuria. The UAE increased significantly with the severity of hypertension (r = 0.32, p<0.001 for control) r = 0.38, p<0.05 for controlled and r = 0.49 p<0.05 for poorly controlled. Conclusion:A timed overnight (8 hours) Urinary UAE is a preferred alternative to cumbersome 24 hours urine collection for monitoring response to treatment in Nigerian patients with benign essential hypertension.
