Microalbuminuria in chronic obstructive lung disease.

Changes in renal function have been reported in chronic obstructive lung disease' but not proteinuria. We describe a heterogeneous group of patients with chronic obstructive lung disease who were found to have microalbuminuria. Patients, methods, and results Twenty two inpatients with chronic obstructive lung disease provided a clean catch midstream specimen of urine. Twenty normal healthy volunteers matched for sex (two women in each group) and age (within two years) provided control samples. None had any medical history ofrenal disease. Forced expiratory volume in one second and forced vital capacity were measured by standard spirometric methods and arterial blood gas values by Instrumen-tation Laboratory (UK) Blood Gas Analyser 3. Albumin was measured with pyrogallol red molybdate.-y-Glutamyltransferase, P-N-acetylglucosaminidase, and lysozyme values were measured by using commercially available substrates. Results of the urine analyses were expressed per mmol creatinine. As the results were not normally distributed, log transformed data were used for analysis. Two sample t tests were used to compare the chronic obstructive lung disease and control groups, and the linear association between variables was assessed with Pearson correlation coefficients.