ABSTRACT
Vito M. Campese*, Roberto Bigazzi, and Stefano Bianchi * Division of Nephrology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA, and Unita’ Operativa di Nefrologia, Spedali Riuniti, Livorno, Italy
INTRODUCTION
The presence of microalbuminuria in patients with insulin-dependent (IDDM) and non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) is a well recognized marker of generalized microvascular and glomerular damage, and, as such, it predicts progressive renal disease as well as cardiovascular morbidity and mortality [1-3]
A large body of evidence indicates that microalbuminuria in patients with essential hypertension is also predictive of cardiovascular and renal events. As such, measurement of urinary albumin excretion (UAE) is a useful tool to predict cardiovascular and renal disease in patients with essential hypertension.
