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 withou t renal or cardiovascular disease has been shown to be predictive of ischae mic heart disease. An insertion (I)/deletion (D) polymorphism in the angiot ensin I-converting enzyme (ACE) gene has been identified and the D allele m ay be associated with cardiovascular disease. The aim of this study was to find a potential linkage between this polymorphism and elevated UAE. For st udies of UAE and cardiovascular pathophysiology, a highly selected populati on sample has been identified comprising all clinically healthy subjects ag ed 40-65 years with elevated UAE in a dipstick negative urinary sample (n = 27) from The Copenhagen City Heart Study. Neither the ACE genotype distrib ution (p = 0.12) nor the D and I allele frequencies (p = 0.69) differed sig nificantly between subjects with elevated UAE and a matched normoalbuminuri c control group (n = 46). Elevated UAE in clinically healthy subjects is no t linked to the ACE gene polymorphism.