BACKGROUND AND AIMS:

Renal glucosuria is defined as the excretion of detectable amounts of glucose in the urine without diabetes or hyperglycemia. Few data exist regarding the prevalence of renal glucosuria and its clinical impact on atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases.

METHODS:

This study included 47,842 subjects (16,913 men, 35.4%) aged ≥40 years who underwent the Japanese specific health checkup in Kanazawa City during 2014. We defined renal glucosuria as fulfillment of all of the following three criteria: 1) detectable glucosuria; 2) the absence of diabetes; 3) normal blood glucose (<110 mg/dl fasting, and <140 mg/dl non-fasting). The presence of renal glucosuria and of factors associated with atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases, including coronary artery disease and stroke, was assessed.

RESULTS:

The criteria for renal glucosuria were met by 665 (1.4%) subjects. Significantly higher proportions of subjects with renal glucosuria exhibited coronary artery disease, stroke, or either outcome than those without (14.9% vs. 12.1%, p = 0.0305; 9.9% vs. 6.9%, p = 0.00255; 22.3% vs. 17.0%, p = 4.0 × 10^-4, respectively), but multivariate logistic regression analyses revealed that renal glucosuria was not associated with coronary artery disease (odds ratio [OR] = 0.940, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.748-1.171, not significant), stroke (OR = 1.122, 95% CI = 0.853-1.453, not significant), or atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases (OR = 1.122, 95% CI = 0.853-1.453, not significant).

Characteristics of the subjects with renal glucosuria

CONCLUSIONS:

These results indicate that the prevalence of renal glucosuria in the Japanese general population was 1.4%, and that renal glucosuria was not associated with atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases per se.