Diagnosis and treatment of unilateral forms of primary aldosteronism.

Primary aldosteronism (PA) is now recognized as the most frequent form of secondary arterial hypertension. The importance of a correct and prompt diagnosis of PA is determined by its relevant prevalence, its increased cardiovascular risk compared to essential hypertension and by the possibility of reversing this increased risk with a targeted therapy. Surgical treatment of unilateral forms of PA (mainly aldosterone-producing adenomas) is at present recommended in well-selected patients because of its cost-effectiveness. Therefore, subtype differentiation of PA forms is of fundamental importance, and available guidelines recommend contrast-enhanced CT-scanning and adrenal venous sampling (AVS) as the main diagnostic tests for this purpose. In this review, we discuss the value of adrenal non-invasive imaging and AVS, the recent advances in complementary tests and, finally, the available data on the outcome of surgical treatment for PA.

Citation

Andrea Viola, Davide Tizzani, Silvia Monticone, Valentina Crudo, Maddalena Galmozzi, Jacopo Burrello, Karine Versace, Maria Loiacono, Franco Veglio, Paolo Mulatero. Diagnosis and treatment of unilateral forms of primary aldosteronism. Current hypertension reviews. 2013 May;9(2):156-65

PMID: 23971697

search → result