High prevalence of hypertensive retinopathy and coronary heart disease in hypertensive patients with persistent microalbuminuria under short intensive antihypertensive therapy.

In 84 patients with insufficiently treated essential hypertension (systolic blood pressure > or = 160 mmHg and/or diastolic blood pressure > or = 100 mmHg) and normal renal function (creatinine clearance Mean +/- SD = 114 +/- 22 ml/min/1.73 m2) the mean urinary albumin excretion was 39 +/- 19 mg/24h in comparison to 14 +/- 13 mg/24h (p < 0.001) in 10 healthy controls. In 39 of the hypertensive patients albumin excretion was increased (> 30 mg/24h urine) in a subclinical range (microalbuminuria). After 3 days of effective antihypertensive treatment (systolic blood pressure < 150 mmHg and diastolic blood pressure < 90 mmHg) the mean albumin excretion of the microalbuminuric patients decreased from 66 +/- 33 mg/24h to 44 +/- 28 mg/24h (p < 0.01). 27 of these hypertensive patients showed persistent microalbuminuria; in the other 12 patients with primary microalbuminuria the albumin excretion rate was normal now. In the patients with persistent microalbuminuria the prevalence of hypertensive retinopathy was 85% in comparison to only 33% in the patients with reversible microalbuminuria under intensified antihypertensive treatment (p < 0.01) and 31% in the patients with primary normoalbuminuria. The prevalence of coronary heart disease was 11% in the patients with normoalbuminuria and 29% in those with irreversible microalbuminuria (ns). Thus hypertensive patients with persistent but not with reversible microalbuminuria under short intensive antihypertensive therapy show a statistically significant higher prevalence of hypertensive retinopathy and therefore can be considered as an indicator of general microvascular damage in essential hypertension.