Association of serum triglycerides with microalbuminuria in nondiabetic hypertensive patients

Background: Triglycerides (TG) levels were associated with microalbuminuria in diabetes. However, this association was barely investigated in non-diabetic hypertensive patients. We aimed to investigate such an association in non-diabetic hypertensive patients and the factors would affect it. Methods: We enrolled 445 eligible non-diabetic hypertensive patients and analyzed the association between TG and microalbuminuria. Results: Urinary microalbumin levels were significantly increased in patients with high TG levels (≥ 1.7 mmol/L). Multivariate logistic regression analysis identified that ln (TG) [odds ratio (OR): 2.273, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.140 to 4.532, P = 0.020] were independently associated with microalbuminuria in all patients. Multinomial logistic regression analysis further revealed that highest tertile of TG level (≥ 1.76 mmol/L) significantly correlated with microalbuminuria (OR: 2.164, 95% CI: 1.336 to 3.507, P = 0.002) and the association remained significant after adjustments of sex, body mass index, ln(age), ln(systolic blood pressure), ln[diastolic blood pressure (DBP) (OR: 1.990, 95% CI: 1.197 to 3.308, P = 0.008). Association between TG and microalbuminuria was no longer significant when patients were limited to those with low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) treatment target achieved. However, in a forced model of multivariate regression analysis by eliminating ln (DBP), ln (TG) resumed the association with microalbuminuria (OR: 2.722, 95% CI: 1.122 to 6.605, P = 0.027). Conclusions: TG levels were associated with microalbuminuria in non-diabetic hypertensive patients, and the independence of association was supposed to be affected by baseline LDL-C and blood pressure levels