Abstract
Primary aldosteronism is one of the most common forms of secondary hypertension, but it is often under diagnosed, which leads to the development of cardiovascular damage, and excess costs for long-term drug treatment and management of complications. The aldosterone to renin ratio (ARR) is a key step for early detection of primary aldosteronism, but unfortunately is not easily estimated. This is because plasma aldosterone and renin are measured with different assays, which provide results in different units of measure, with ensuing difficulty of obtaining the calculation of the ARR in the proper units and impossibility of interpreting results with reference to established cut off values. Therefore, doctors are often unable to draw unambiguous conclusions to be used for the clinical decision-making. To the aim of making the diagnostic work-up easier, we have developed an Application that provide a swift calculation of the ARR regardless of the units of measure used for plasma aldosterone and renin values. If the concomitant serum potassium level is available the App also provides the patient’s probability of having an aldosterone—producing adenoma based on a validated logistic discriminant analysis.
References
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Acknowledgments
There are conflicts of interest to declare. We are grateful to Teresa Maria Seccia, MD, PhD, Giuseppe Maiolino, MD, PhD, and Giacomo Rossitto, MD, for helpful discussion.
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All other authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. Grant support: FORICA (The FOundation for advanced Research In Hypertension and CArdiovascular diseases, http://www.forica.it), the Società Italiana dell’Ipertensione Arteriosa and the University of Padua to GPR. Research grant by the Young Research Program of the Italy’s Health Minister to L.L. Project GR-2009-1524351. No relationship with industry to be disclosed.
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Rossi, G.P., Bisogni, V. The Aldosterone Renin Ratio (ARR) APP as Tool to Enhance the Detection Rate of Primary Aldosteronism. High Blood Press Cardiovasc Prev 23, 147–149 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40292-016-0132-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40292-016-0132-9