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Diagnosis and treatment of primary aldosteronism

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Abstract

Primary aldosteronism is the most common form of secondary hypertension. The detection of primary aldosteronism is of particular importance, not only because it provides an opportunity for a targeted treatment (surgical for APA and medical with mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists for BAH), but also because it has been extensively demonstrated that patients affected by PA are more prone to cardiovascular events and target organ damage than essential hypertensives. According to the Endocrine Society Guidelines diagnosis of PA is made following a rigorous flow-chart comprising screening, confirmation/exclusion testing and subtype diagnosis. In the present review we describe briefly the published diagnostic strategies of the Guidelines, highlighting new evidence that has become recently available and discuss issues that still need to be addressed by future research.

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Source of funding

This work was in part funded by a grant from Regione Piemonte Ricerca Finalizzata 2008-I and 2008-II.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Internal Medicine and Hypertension, Department of Medicine and Experimental Oncology, University of Torino, 10126, Torino, Italy

    Paolo Mulatero, Silvia Monticone & Franco Veglio

  2. Medicina Interna 4 e Centro Ipertensione, AOU S.Giovanni Battista, Via Genova 3, 10126, Torino, Italy

    Paolo Mulatero

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  1. Paolo Mulatero
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  2. Silvia Monticone
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  3. Franco Veglio
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Correspondence to Paolo Mulatero.

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Mulatero, P., Monticone, S. & Veglio, F. Diagnosis and treatment of primary aldosteronism. Rev Endocr Metab Disord 12, 3–9 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11154-011-9156-6

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