Metabolic syndrome and risk of progression of chronic kidney disease: a single-center cohort study in Japan

Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a risk factor for the development of diabetes and cardiovascular disease, and recently was linked to incident chronic kidney disease (CKD). The purpose of this study is to examine whether MetS is associated with CKD progression in Japanese at a single center. Outcome variables were a decrease in estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) of 50 % or 25 ml/min/1.73 m², end-stage renal disease (ESRD), death, or a composite outcome of all three. There were 213 subjects in the analysis, 40.4 % of whom met the criteria for MetS. The group of subjects with MetS had higher urinary albumin-to-creatinine (UACR) levels. Survival curves stratified by MetS status showed early separation of the curves and a significantly higher survival rate in the group without MetS (P = 0.0086). Comparisons with normoalbuminuria and microalbuminuria showed that macroalbuminuria was equally associated with predicted composite outcome (GFR, ESRD, or death) both in the presence and absence of MetS. Multivariate analyses for all covariates showed that eGFR (hazard ratio (HR) 8.286, 95 % confidence interval (CI) 2.360–28.044, P = 0.0012) and the UACR (HR 2.338, 95 % CI 1.442–3.861, P = 0.0005) at baseline were independently associated with the composite outcomes. The results show that MetS was associated with albuminuria in a cohort of Japanese CKD patients, and both MetS and albuminuria were independently associated with CKD progression.