Transiently Observed Trace Albuminuria on Urine Dipstick Test Is Associated With All-Cause Death, Cardiovascular Death, and Incident Chronic Kidney Disease: A National Health Insurance Service-National Sample Cohort in Korea

Abstract

IntroductionAlbuminuria is a well-known risk factor for end-stage kidney disease, all-cause mortality, and cardiovascular mortality, even when the albumin-to-creatinine ratio is <30 mg/g. However, the association between transiently observed trace albuminuria and these major adverse outcomes has not yet been reported. This study aimed to examine the effect of transient albuminuria on these major adverse outcomes using the National Health Insurance Service data in Korea.Methods and ResultsThe National Health Insurance Service-National Sample Cohort from Korea, followed from 2002 to 2015, consisted of 1,025,340 individuals, accounting for 2.2% of the total Korean population. We analyzed the effect of transient albuminuria on all-cause death, cardiovascular death, and incident chronic kidney disease (CKD) and compared it with the group without albuminuria. Among 1,025,340 individuals, 121,876 and 2,815 had transient albuminuria and no albuminuria, respectively. Adjusted hazard ratios of the transient albuminuria group for cardiovascular death and incident CKD were 1.76 (1.01–3.08) and 1.28 (1.15–1.43), respectively. There were significant differences in all-cause death, cardiovascular death, and incident CKD between the two groups after propensity score matching (p = 0.0037, p = 0.015, and p < 0.0001, respectively). Propensity score matching with bootstrapping showed that the hazard ratios of the transient albuminuria group for all-cause death and cardiovascular death were 1.39 (1.01–1.92) and 2.18 (1.08–5.98), respectively.ConclusionsIn this nationwide, large-scale, retrospective cohort study, transient albuminuria was associated with all-cause death, cardiovascular death, and incident CKD, suggesting that transient albuminuria could be a risk marker for adverse outcomes in the future, and that its own subclinical phenotype could play an important role during the course of CKD.

Effects of Non-Albuminuric Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus on Renal Outcomes: A Nationwide Study

“…Because we considered individuals with totally healthy kidney, all participants had eGFR levels above 60 ml/min per 1.73 m 2 with negative in urine dipstick tests. In our previous work, transiently documented as trace in urine dipstick test showed a signi cant effect on renal and cardiovascular outcomes 35 . Thus, trace or greater degree of urine dipstick test results were considered as positive.…”

Neutrophil Percentage as a Potential Biomarker of Acute Kidney Injury Risk and Short-term Prognosis in Patients with Acute Myocardial Infarction in the Elderly [Response to Letter]

“…This was also a limitation of the current study. In addition, for the elderly patients, the indicators such as trace albuminuria in the urine, 4 or urine albumin to creatinine ratio (UACR) 5 may also be potential biomarkers for renal function evaluation in the early stage.…”