Protein in urine may help predict outcome

CALGARY, Alberta, Feb. 4 (UPI) -- Canadian researchers say high levels of protein in urine may be linked to adverse clinical outcomes.

Researchers at the University of Calgary found patients with high levels of proteinuria -- protein in urine -- but without overtly abnormal removal of waste products by the kidneys appeared to have worse clinical outcomes than those with moderately reduced kidney function but without proteinuria.

Dr. Brenda Hemmelgarn and colleagues analyzed provincial data from 2002-2007 from Alberta's laboratory registry of 920,985 adults not requiring dialysis for whom there were measurements of the kidney's ability to filter out waste products called eGFR -- estimated rate of glomerular filtration -- and of proteinuria.

The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found risk varied substantially within each level of eGFR, but those with greater amounts of proteinuria had increased adjusted rates of adverse outcomes -- all-cause death, heart attack end-stage renal disease or a 50 percent decline in kidney function.