Association between urinary angiotensinogen levels and renal and cardiovascular prognoses in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus

Aims/Introduction: Activation of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) in the kidney plays an important role in renal function. The aim of this study was to investigate whether plasma and urinary angiotensinogen levels were associated with renal and cardiovascular prognosis in type 2 diabetic patients. Materials and Methods: We measured plasma and urinary angiotensinogen levels in the observational follow-up cohort of 234 Japanese type 2 diabetic patients (144 with normoalbuminuria, 90 with albuminuria) enrolled between 1998 and 1999 and followed them up until the end of 2008. The associations of these markers with the annual decline in the estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) and incidence of renal and cardiovascular composite endpoints (chronic hemodialysis, myocardial infarction, angina pectoris, stroke and cerebral hemorrhage) were evaluated. Results: At baseline, urinary angiotensinogen levels correlated with urinary albumin-creatinine ratio, urinary β2-microglobulin and inversely with eGFR. In contrast, plasma angiotensinogen levels correlated neither with these renal factors nor with urinary angiotensinogen levels. In the follow-up study (median duration: 9 years), urinary angiotensinogen, but not plasma angiotensinogen, correlated inversely with the annual change in eGFR (r = −0.51, P