Elevated urinary albumin excretion is not linked to the angiotensin I-converting enzyme gene polymorphism in clinically healthy subjects

An elevated urinary albumin excretion (UAE) in non-diabetic subjects without renal or cardiovascular disease has been shown to be predictive of ischaemic heart disease. An insertion (I)/deletion (D) polymorphism in the angiotensin I-converting enzyme (ACE) gene has been identified and the D allele may be associated with cardiovascular disease. The aim of this study was to find a potential linkage between this polymorphism and elevated UAE. For studies of UAE and cardiovascular pathophysiology, a highly selected population sample has been identified comprising all clinically healthy subjects aged 40-65 years with elevated UAE in a dipstick negative urinary sample (n=27) from The Copenhagen City Heart Study. Neither the ACE genotype distribution (p=0.12) nor the D and I allele frequencies (p=0.69) differed significantly between subjects with elevated UAE and a matched normoalbuminuric control group (n=46). Elevated UAE in clinically healthy subjects is not linked to the ACE gene polymorphism.