Urine protein may be present before hypertension diagnosis in at-risk adolescents

A protein that is an early indicator of kidney dysfunction in adults may predict hypertension in black adolescents, Medical College of Georgia researchers have found.

“Microalbuminuria, excessive amounts of albumin in the urine, is a common problem among diabetics,” says Dr. Gregory Harshfield, director of the Medical College of Georgia’s Georgia Prevention Institute. “For that reason, the few studies that have looked at adolescent patients have been focused on sick populations and even fewer have examined the phenomenon in healthy adolescents. What we were looking to find was the prevalence of the problem in a healthy population of children and adolescents and the impact of race, sex, sodium-handling and blood pressure on microalbuminuria.”

Dr. Harshfield and his co-investigators, Dr. Coral Hanevold, a former MCG pediatric nephrologist now at the University of Washington in Seattle, and Dr. Jennifer Pollock, an MCG pharmacologist, studied 317 healthy teens age 15-18. The results are published in the February issue of Hypertension, a journal of the American Heart Association.

The subjects were place on a three-day sodium-controlled diet prior to testing on day four. Testing consisted of a two-hour baseline period, a one-hour stress period and a two-hour post-stress period. Urine samples were obtained at the end of each hour. Levels of microalbumin were determined following the first-hour baseline period.

Researchers found that the black teens had a 10 percent higher rate of albumin in their urine than their white counterparts, despite the fact that both groups had normal blood pressure. Those results suggest that kidney damage in these high-risk youths is apparent even before the development of high blood pressure. The black girls had a 22 percent higher albumin excretion rate than white girls.

The higher levels correspond to a tendency to retain sodium after stress, Dr. Harshfield says, noting that sodium retention is normal during stress but should normalize after the stressor has passed.

“What we’ve shown is that children and adolescents, particularly black children, can display reduced kidney function prior to the onset of hypertension. Therefore, it would be prudent to measure levels of microalbuminuria in high-risk patients.”

Source: Medical College of Georgia

Related stories:

Report suggests allopurinol may lower blood pressure in teens with hypertension
The drug allopurinol, which lowers uric acid levels, appears to reduce blood pressure in adolescents with newly diagnosed hypertension, according to a preliminary report in the August 27 issue of JAMA.
Black women have urinary incontinence less than half as often as white women
The good news for black women: They have less than half the chance of developing urinary incontinence as do white women, according to a new study from the University of Michigan Health System.
Your baby's brain on drugs (and alcohol and tobacco)
Although behavioral studies clearly indicate that exposure to drugs, alcohol and tobacco in utero is bad for a baby’s developing brain, specific anatomic brain effects have been hard to tease out in humans. Often users don’t limit themselves to one substance, and demographic factors like poverty can also influence brain development.
Norwegian Tooth Bank seeks milk teeth from 100,000 children
The Norwegian Tooth Bank is requesting milk teeth from 100 000 children in Norway and could become the biggest tooth bank in the world. Milk teeth can give unique information about environmental influences and nutrition in the foetus and in early childhood. The Tooth Bank is a sub-project in the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study (MoBa), and is a collaborative project between the Norwegian Institute of Public Health and the University of Bergen.
Beyond batteries: Storing power in a sheet of nanocomposite paper
Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have developed a new energy storage device that easily could be mistaken for a simple sheet of black paper.
Chronic family turmoil and other problems cause physical changes
Adolescents who are chronically exposed to family turmoil, violence, noise, poor housing or other chronic risk factors show more stress-induced physiological strain on their organs and tissues than other young people.
Forget Basal Body Temperature -- Check Out Her Clothes
Was Chris De Burgh's sexy "Lady in Red," perhaps, ovulating? A new UCLA and University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire study finds evidence that women put more effort into their clothing and grooming during their most fertile periods.
'Wristwatch' biosensor to track alcohol use
The device looks like a runner’s digital watch. Black, plastic and oversized, it dominates mathematician Gary Rosen’s wrist. But what Rosen has strapped on is no simple timepiece. It’s one of the very few prototypes of a computer designed to record, in minute detail and real time, its wearer’s sobriety. Or drunkenness.

News discussion:

Medicine & Health news