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Acta clinica Croatica, Vol. 62. No. 4, 2023.

Original scientific paper

https://doi.org/10.20471/acc.2023.62.04.8

Urinary Nephrin as an Early Biomarker of Hypertensive Nephropathy

Irena Kostovska orcid id orcid.org/0000-0003-0971-6710 ; epartment of Medical and Experimental Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, Ss Cyril and Methodius University, Skopje, North Macedonia *
Katerina Tosheska Trajkovska ; epartment of Medical and Experimental Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, Ss Cyril and Methodius University, Skopje, North Macedonia
Danica Labudović ; epartment of Medical and Experimental Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, Ss Cyril and Methodius University, Skopje, North Macedonia
Ognen Kostovski ; Department of Digestive Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Ss Cyril and Methodius University, Skopje, North Macedonia
Goce Spasovski ; Department of Nephrology, Faculty of Medicine, Ss Cyril and Methodius University, Skopje, North Macedonia

* Corresponding author.

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Abstract

Hypertensive nephropathy (HN) is characterized by kidney damage due to chronic
high blood pressure. Podocytes play a crucial role in the pathogenesis of HN, thus, nephrin could be
important in the early diagnosis of HN. The aim of the study was to investigate the association of urinary
nephrin (u-nephrin) levels with clinical and laboratory characteristics in patients with HN and to test
diagnostic relevance of u-nephrin as an early biomarker of HN. In this cross-sectional study, 114 subjects
were recruited, 84 patients with chronic hypertension (CH) and 30 healthy controls. All patients with
CH were classified according to the urinary microalbumin/creatinine ratio (UM/CR) and according to
the chronic kidney disease (CKD) stage. Urine samples were collected to estimate the u-nephrin level
by ELISA and to determine UM/CR. Blood samples were used for biochemical analyses. We found
elevated u-nephrin in 78.3% of normoalbuminuric subjects with CH. The levels of u-nephrin increased
gradually with the stage of CKD. ROC curve plotted for u-nephrin showed 89.7% sensitivity and 88.8%
specificity, while UM/CR showed a sensitivity of 44.8% and specificity of 86.1% to detect HN in the
early stage. It is concluded that u-nephrin can be useful as an early biomarker of HN.

Keywords

Nephrin; Hypertensive nephropathy; Podocytes; Microalbumin; Chronic kidney disease

Hrčak ID:

320298

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/320298

Publication date:

31.12.2023.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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