Heart disease, in any form is unquestionably one of the major cause of morbidity and mortality in this planet. The scientists of the globe are working on preventing the same as by any means, prevention is better than cure. As a result of their hard work they have come out with number of ways to identify and stop the progression when the disease is young. And now the Dutch investigators found that postmenopausal women with high levels of a protein called albumin in their urine were nearly 4.5 times as likely to have died from cardiovascular diseases 15 years later as those with no measurable levels of the protein in their urine.
Microalbuminuria, the condition wherein the albumin is excreted in the urine is an early predictor of heart disease in those with diabetes and high blood pressure. This is due to the leaking of the protein due to malfunction of the cells that line the blood vessels. "The endothelial cells may already be damaged and malfunctioning at the early stage of heart disease when there are no symptoms," says Jan Dirk Banga, M.D., Ph.D., co-author of the report.In this particular study which involved around 12000 women, it was found that those in the top group had more than four times higher risk of having died of cardiovascular disease as those in the group for whom no albumin in the urine could be detected. "We know from studying people with diabetes that we can reduce microalbuminuria with ACE inhibitors and that this may help protect them," says Dr. Banga. Thereby reducing the degree of microalbuminuria reduces the risk of heart disease.
