Endocrine Abstracts

The measurement of plasma renin activity is required in a number of clinical situations, in particular screening for primary aldosteronism (PA) and monitoring mineralocorticoid replacement therapy. PA is a treatable cause of hypertension and has an estimated prevalence of up to 20% amongst resistant hypertensives. Consequently, recent guidelines now recommend screening for PA in all patients groups with a high prevalence of PA. At present, the most reliable method of screening...

Introduction: Aldosterone is a potent adrenal steroid hormone which regulates renal sodium reabsorption and potassium secretion. Clinically, measurement of aldosterone is important to identify patients with primary hyperaldosteronism, and has traditionally been performed by immunoassay. The specificity of immunoassays is often poor due to antibody cross reactivity to other structurally related steroid hormones, resulting in falsely elevated concentrations. To overcome these li...