C-reactive protein is directly associated with urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio

Background and aims: There are no studies that elucidate whether the role of inflammation in the increase of urinary albumin is independent, mediated by family history or by risk factors acquired during life in the offspring of subjects with type 2 diabetes. We undertook this study to evaluate whether elevated C-reactive protein (CRP) levels are independently associated with urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio (UACR) in the offspring of subjects with diabetic nephropathy.

Methods: A total of 64 healthy males and healthy nonpregnant females, offspring of subjects with diabetic nephropathy, aged 18-69 years, and with body mass index ≤35 kg/m(2) were enrolled in a cross-sectional study. Hypertension, glucose metabolic disorders, metabolic syndrome, smoking, alcohol intake, chronic or acute infections, renal disease, neoplasm, cardiovascular disease, degenerative disease, intake of anti-inflammatory drugs, exercise, or sexual intercourse in the previous 72 h were exclusion criteria. Subjects with high-sensitivity CRP (hsCRP) levels ≥3.0 mg/dL were compared with a gender- and age-matched control group of subjects with hsCRP levels <3.0 mg/dL.

Results: The multivariate linear regression analysis showed that hsCRP (B = 0.50, β = 0.583, p = 0.02), total body fat (B = -2.80, β = 0.473, p = 0.03), BMI (B = -1.45, β = 0.390, p = 0.04) and waist circumference (B = 0.89, β = 0.407, p = 0.04) are predictors for elevation of UACR (Table 2). However, in the stepwise model only hsCRP (B = 0.674; β = 0.314; p = 0.04) remained significantly associated with UACR.

Conclusions: Our results show that independent of the primary risk factors, elevated hsCRP levels are associated with UACR.