For decades, researchers characterized normal albuminuria as a urine albumin-creatinine ratio of less than 30 mg/g. That has led some clinicians to believe that patients with lower ratios don鈥檛 need additional treatment. But a new in Annals of Internal Medicine challenges that assumption by showing that even low levels of albuminuria are a risk factor for kidney failure in people with chronic kidney disease.
People with urine albumin-creatinine ratios of 15 mg/g or more had about a 5% to 6% greater absolute risk of kidney failure than those who had ratios of 5 to less than 15 mg/g and of 0 to 5 mg/g, respectively. The findings are based on data from more than 1600 participants across 7 US centers.
The results 鈥渞aise an important question of whether any categorizations of albuminuria should remain in clinical and research practice,鈥� or whether clinicians should instead use it as a continuous risk factor for adverse outcomes, the researchers wrote.
Published Online: April 19, 2024. doi:10.1001/jama.2024.5925