In patients with primary aldosteronism, adrenal vein sampling (AVS) is considered the only reliable technique to distinguish between unilateral and bilateral autonomous production of aldosterone, but agreement is lacking on the best criteria indicating successful cannulation and lateralization. The objective of this study was to assess the impact of differing criteria for the successful cannula...

Important advances have been made in understanding the role of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system in the pathogenesis and diagnosis of hypertensive disorders. Measurement of plasma renin activity (PRA) and aldosterone is very important in the assessment of secondary hypertension. Hypertensions with increased PRA include renovascular hypertension, some cases of unilateral and bilateral ren...

Recent studies have indicated a higher prevalence of primary aldosteronism (PA) than reported historically. Aldosterone excess induces sodium and fluid retention with consequential increases in blood pressure. Patients with PA are at an increased risk of developing left ventricular hypertrophy, chronic kidney disease, and endothelial dysfunction. Measurement of the plasma aldosterone/plasma ren...

▼ Familial forms of primary aldosteronism have been suggested to account for up to 6 % of cases in referral centers. For many years, the genetics of familial hyperaldosteronism remained unknown, with the notable exception of glucocorticoid-remediable aldosteronism, due to unequal crossing over and formation of a chimeric 11β-hydroxylase/ aldosterone synthase gene. Over the past 5 years, mutatio...

Metabolic Dysfunction in Primary Aldosteronism To the Editor: The study by Matrozova et al1 analyzed retrospectively the metabolic parameters of a large French cohort of patients with primary aldosteronism (PA) who were compared with matched patients with primary hypertension (PH). In these 2 groups of patients, fasting plasma glucose levels, as well as the prevalence of hyperglycemia, were com...

▼ Familial forms of primary aldosteronism have been suggested to account for up to 6 % of cases in referral centers. For many years, the genetics of familial hyperaldosteronism remained unknown, with the notable exception of glucocorticoid-remediable aldosteronism, due to unequal crossing over and formation of a chimeric 11β-hydroxylase/ aldosterone synthase gene. Over the past 5 years, mutatio...

Studies were carried out in 14 patients with primary aldosteronism (1°A) to examine the mechanism(s) by which spironolactone reduces arterial pressure. Measures that produced salt and water depletion were found to consistently reduce arterial pressure. Plasma volume and arterial pressure correlated directly and significantly, r =+0.509 (P <0.001), whether pressure was reduced by spironolactone ...

Recent studies in hypertensive populations that have used the serum aldosterone (SA) to plasma renin activity (PRA) ratio as a screening test have demonstrated a high prevalence of primary aldosteronism (PA). This frequency is higher than that previously described when hypokalemia was used as a screening tool. However, other factors, such as the characteristics of hypertensive disease, could al...

Renal Function in Primary Aldosteronism To the Editor: We read the interesting article of Rossi et al1 investigating the involvement of the kidney in a large group of patients with primary aldosteronism (PA) who were recruited in a multicentric, Italian study. In these patients, the authors observed greater urinary albumin excretion (UAE) and higher prevalence of microalbuminuria than in essent...