ABSTRACT
Background: Many studies in the past have revealed the prevalence of hyperuricemia and microalbuminuria in hypertensive individuals and both are the well known markers of end organ damage. But there are very few studies which have demonstrated the prevalence of hyperuricemia and microalbuminuria in prehypertensive individuals in Indian clinical scenario so that we can identify the prehypertensive individuals at risk of subclinical organ damage by simply measuring these parameters. Objective: To study the prevalence of hyperuricemia and microalbuminuria in prehypertension. Methods: Study was done on both male and female prehypertensive patients of age more than 18 years and less than 60, admitted in wards and attending OPD under the Department of Medicine, NIMS Hospital, Jaipur. Controls were normotensive patients admitted in wards who were matched for age, sex and confounding factors. Results: Hyperuricemia was found in 47(15.67%) patients with prehypertension compared to 29(9.67%) patients with normal BP .Microalbuminuria (quantitative) was found in 51(17%) patients with Prehypertension compared to 31(10.33%) patients with normal BP. The study showed that subjects in prehypertensive group had serum uric acid values distributed more widely in the IIIrd and IVth quartiles than in the Ist and IInd quartiles, whereas subjects in control group had serum uric acid values with greater distribution, in the Ist and IInd quartiles than in the IIIrd and IVth quartiles. Conclusion: We found that microalbuminuria and hyperuricemia are significantly more prevalent among prehypertensive subjects as compared to normotensive subjects so that measurement of these parameters can serve as low cost, accurate & reliable clinical tool to identify prehypertensive patient at higher risk of subclinical target organ damage.