Largely studied in diabetes, its importance as a risk factor in hypertension and in the general population has been established in the last years. A large number of cross-sectional and 4′-Chloropropiophenone follow-up studies have established the relationship between UAE and blood pressure as well as Ganoderenic-acid-D insulin levels. The importance of other casual factors such as obesity and smoking contribute, to a minor degree, to the increment of UAE. The role of genetic factors in the risk to develop an increment in UAE has been a matter of controversy. The relationship between the risk of UAE and polymorphisms of candidate genes was initially described. A recent review about the potential genetic factors described the most relevant information available but no firm conclusions can be established. Furthermore, a GWAS analysis of a very large number of subjects did not find genetic traits associated with UAE, although how the phenotype was assessed had all the potential for inaccuracy. Intermediate mechanisms have also provided some insights into the increment of UAE and its association with high cardiovascular and renal risk. Inflammation and oxidative stress have been associated to microalbuminuria as intermediate mechanisms. Other potential associations can be explored by using the metabolomic profile. The study of small-molecule metabolites in biological fluids with NMR spectroscopy, a fast and reproducible technique, may be useful for understanding metabolic imbalances and for detecting previously unsuspected links to pathological conditions. Recently studies using metabolomics have been applied to identify a discriminatory metabolite profile in a large number of diseases. Up to now no information about the link between metabolomic profiles and UAE in the general population has been provided. A further step in identifying the factors related to the risk to develop microalbuminuria could be to take advantage of combining data provided from genomic and metabolomic analyses, the goal of the present study in a general population.While the ACE-I gene has been very well characterized for many years and associated to UAE and to progression of renal diseases, the role of the RPH3A has not been clarified until recently.