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Urinary Albumin, Sodium, and Potassium and Cardiovascular Outcomes in the UK Biobank: Observational and Mendelian Randomization Analyses.

Published version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Zanetti, Daniela 
Bergman, Helene 
Assimes, Themistocles L 
Bhalla, Vivek 

Abstract

Urinary biomarkers are associated with cardiovascular disease, but the nature of these associations is not well understood. We performed multivariable-adjusted regression models to assess associations of random spot measurements of the urine sodium-potassium ratio (UNa/UK) and urine albumin adjusted for creatinine with cardiovascular risk factors, cardiovascular disease, and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D) in 478 311 participants of the UK Biobank. Further, we assessed the causal relationships of these kidney biomarkers, used as proxies for kidney function, with cardiovascular outcomes using the 2-sample Mendelian randomization approach. In observational analyses, UNa/UK showed significant inverse associations with atrial fibrillation, coronary artery disease, ischemic stroke, lipid-lowering medication, and T2D. In contrast, urine albumin adjusted for creatinine showed significant positive associations with atrial fibrillation, coronary artery disease, heart failure, hemorrhagic stroke, lipid-lowering medication, and T2D. We found a positive association between UNa/UK and albumin with blood pressure (BP), as well as with adiposity-related measures. After correcting for potential horizontal pleiotropy, we found evidence of causal associations of UNa/UK and albumin with BP (β systolic BP ≥2.63; β diastolic BP ≥0.85 SD increase in BP per SD change in UNa/UK and urine albumin adjusted for creatinine; P≤0.04), and of albumin with T2D (odds ratio=1.33 per SD change in albumin, P=0.02). Our comprehensive study of urinary biomarkers performed using state-of-the-art analyses of causality mirror and extend findings from randomized interventional trials which have established UNa/UK as a risk factor for hypertension. In addition, we detect a causal feedback loop between albumin and hypertension, and our finding of a bidirectional causal association between albumin and T2D reflects the well-known nephropathy in T2D.

Description

Keywords

blood pressure, cardiovascular diseases, coronary artery disease, heart failure, type 2 diabetes mellitus, Adiposity, Adult, Aged, Albuminuria, Biomarkers, Cardiovascular Diseases, Causality, Comorbidity, Confounding Factors, Epidemiologic, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Dyslipidemias, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Genetic Pleiotropy, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Kidney Diseases, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Potassium, Proportional Hazards Models, Risk Factors, Sodium, United Kingdom

Journal Title

Hypertension

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0194-911X
1524-4563

Volume Title

75

Publisher

Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health)
Sponsorship
Wellcome Trust (204623/Z/16/Z)
Medical Research Council (MC_UU_00002/7)