Effect of Age on Urinary Albumin Excretion (UAE) In Hypertensives

SUMMARY

The separate effects of age on increased urinary albumin excretion in hypertensives were not demonstrated in this study. Though the mean 24 hour UAE in the elderly hypertensives was higher than that of the young hypertensives, the difference was not statistically significant. When the subjects were subdivided into males and females, the results showed the same pattern, there were no statistically significant differences between elderly and young hypertensives.

This study suggests that the renal arteriosclerosis resulting from the normal process of ageing may not contribute significantly to the increase UAE in elderly hypertensives.

In some other studies, correlations were found between blood pressure and UAE (10). However, other workers did not find correlations between blood pressure and UAE, this study also showed no correlations between UAE and age and UAE and blood pressure in the elderly. One important limitation of this study is the fact that the number of the subjects studied was small, therefore a larger study is required to further assess the role played by age on UAE.