[Early biochemical indicators of renal damage in arterial hypertension]

Hypertensive nephropathy is an important complication of arterial hypertension, being a cause of chronic renal insufficiency in a considerable number of patients. For years it has been attempted to find an useful marker of nephropathy in the incipient phases of the disease. We revised the main biochemical indicators of renal damage, paying special attention to hyperuricemia, microalbuminuria, and urinary excretion of beta-2-microglobulin and N-acetyl-beta-glucosaminidase. Each one of them expresses alterations in the glomerular filtrate, lesion of capillary endothelium or anomalies of the tubular function. None of them demonstrated to be specific to nephroangiosclerosis, but they guide us on the structural and functional alterations occurring in the first stages of hypertensive nephropathy.