2009; van den Heuvel et al. 2011; Sawaguchi et al. 2012). A previous study examining a cohort of hypertensive patients with or without diabetes mellitus also found a significant correlation between the plasma/urinary ratios for albumin and AGT, but no correlation between the plasma/urinary ratios for renin and albumin (van den Heuvel et al. 2011). Here, REN is linked to diabetes mellitus.