International Journal of Contemporary Pediatrics | March 2021 | Vol 8 | Issue 3 Page 414 International Journal of Contemporary Pediatrics Isezuo KO et al. Int J Contemp Pediatr. 2021 Mar;8(3):414-419 http://www.ijpediatrics.com pISSN 2349-3283 | eISSN 2349-3291 Original Research Article Microalbuminuria among children with congenital heart disease seen in Sokoto, North-Western Nigeria Khadijat O. Isezuo 1 *, Usman M. Sani 1 , Usman M. Waziri 1 , Bilkisu G. Ilah 1 , Fatima B. Jiya 1 , Muhammad B. Abdulrahman 2 , Ibrahim J. Hano 1 INTRODUCTION Congenital heart diseases (CHD) are gross structural abnormalities of the heart or intrathoracic great vessels which are actually or potentially of functional significance. 1 They are the most common congenital defects accounting for about a third of major anomalies at birth. Thus they are a significant cause of mortality and also lifelong morbidity in those affected. 2 This is especially important since interventional cardiac care is increasingly available and accessible, more affected young children increasingly survive infancy. 3 They are thus exposed to more complications which may occur inherently from the disease process, from medications or from the interventions carried out. 4 These complications affect different systems as congenital heart disease is being viewed as a multi-systemic disease. 5 Complications could be cardiac and non-cardiac. Cardiac problems include congestive heart failure, infective endocarditis, and arrhythmias. Others are pulmonary hypertension, neurological and nephropathy. Nephropathy has been shown to complicate CHD especially cyanotic CHD in several studies both in children and adults. 4,6-10 In acyanotic CHD, the structurally abnormal heart and circulation leads to effects such as cardiac volume overload, changes in intraglomerular hemodynamics, derangements in neurohormonal ABSTRACT Background: Congenital heart disease (CHD) especially cyanotic CHD has been associated with microalbuminuria which is an early marker of glomerular nephropathy but this has hardly been studied in African children. The aim of this study was to compare mean microalbuminuria levels and associations among children with acyanotic CHD, cyanotic CHD and normal controls. Methods: Forty-one (41) children comprising 19 acyanotic CHD, 14 cyanotic CHD and 8 without CHD aged 1 to 15 years were recruited in a cross-sectional study. Quantitative urinary microalbuminuria was measured by ELISA technique. Positive result was microalbuminuria of 30-300 mcg/mgCr. Mean levels were compared by student t-test and analysis of variance (ANOVA). Statistical significance was taken at p<0.05. Results: There were 22 (53.7%) females and 19 (46.3%) males. Mean level of microalbuminuria was highest in those with cyanotic CHD at 147.7±78.8 mcg/mgCr, followed by those with acyanotic CHD at 111.8±61.5 mcg/mgCr and lowest in those without CHD at 67.3±31.6 mcg/mgCr. There was significant difference between the groups with CHD and those without CHD (F=4.1, p=0.03) and microalbuminuria had a significant but weak negative correlation with oxygen saturation implying that microalbuminuria increased with worsening cyanosis. Conclusions: Microalbuminuria was high among the patients with CHD, though higher in cyanotic patients warranting closer follow up of these patients. Keywords: Microalbuminuria, CHD, Acyanotic, Cyanotic, Controls 1 Department of Paediatrics, 2 Department of Chemical Pathology, UDUTH, Sokoto, Nigeria Received: 02 January 2021 Accepted: 06 February 2021 *Correspondence: Dr. Khadijat O. Isezuo, E-mail: khadisez@yahoo.com Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2349-3291.ijcp20210646