[Albuminuria in persons with real hypertension, white coat hypertension and normotension].

A prospective comparison of office blood pressure, daytime ambulatory blood pressure and urinary albumin excretion was performed in 284 consecutive patients from general practice with newly diagnosed, untreated mild to moderate hypertension. Based on daytime ambulatory blood pressure 173 were classified as established hypertensives and 111 as white coat hypertensives. A sample of 127 subjects drawn from the Danish national register served as a normotensive control group. It was found that urinary albumin/creatinine ratio differed significantly between the three groups; the difference remained significant after correction for covariables. Early morning urine albumin/creatinine ratio was weakly but significantly correlated to blood pressure. Early morning urine albumin/creatinine ratio was as reproducible a measure as 24-hour albumin excretion. It is concluded that white coat hypertensive patients have less renal involvement than patients with established hypertension, but more than a normotensive control group.