Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Among patients diagnosed with primary aldosteronism (PA) due to an aldosterone producing adenoma (APA), about 10% fail to normalize aldosterone hypersecretion after unilateral adrenalectomy, and may instead have bilateral aldosterone producing hyperplasia. With routine histopathology it may be difficult to distinguish between APA and hyperplasia. We have recently reported the use of specific antibodies to identify the source of aldosterone excess in the removed adr...

Background: Primary aldosteronism (PA) accounts for 5–10% of all hypertension. In about 30% of PA patients the disease is unilateral caused by an adenoma or rarely unilateral hyperplasia. Cure rate from unilateral adrenalectomy, defined as normalized aldosterone secretion, is high but only 30–35% will obtain complete resolution of hypertension. We have studied pre- and postoperative characteristics potentially important for biochemical cure and normotension after adr...