Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Acromegaly is an endocrinopathy that affects many different organ systems and leads to multiple comorbidities. Data on morphologic pathology of kidneys in acromegaly is scarce.Methods: We investigated 19 acromegalic patients (11 male, mean age 57.8±12.1 years) presenting in our outpatient clinic. We evaluated each patient’s kidneys by ultrasound, measuring organ dimensions and volume as well as noting any pathologic findings.<...

Adrenal vein sampling (AVS) is a technically demanding procedure required for identification of suitable candidates for unilateral adrenalectomy in primary aldosteronism. Recently, somatic mutations in aldosterone producing adenomas (APA) have become a focus of research. We identified KCNJ5 K+-channel mutations in 34% of APAs, and more recently mutations in 2 ATPase family members in 11 and 6%. However, it is unclear whether steroid gradients during the AVS are infl...

Context: Primary aldosteronism (PA) represents the most frequent cause of a curable secondary arterial hypertension. Conflicting data have been published regarding the effect of aldosterone excess on glucose and lipid metabolism.Objective: Our aim was to analyze insulin sensitivity and beta cell function in a cohort of PA patients. Prospective follow-up investigations were performed in a subgroup of patients before and after adrenalectomy to assess the m...

Introduction: Primary aldosteronism (PA) is the most frequent curable form of hypertension. Hypokalemia is a late symptom of PA. Consequently, PA often is not diagnosed for many years. Our aim was to identify clinical and laboratory parameters in a large cohort of PA patients obtained during their first assessment.Methods: 96 consecutive patients prospectively studied since 2008 at the German Conn’s Registry Center in Munich were eligible for this s...

Background: Screening for primary aldosteronism (PA) using the aldosterone to renin ratio (ARR) is recommended by clinical practice guidelines in patient groups with a high prevalence as the disease is reported by several authors in more than 10% of essential hypertensives (EH).Methods: Plasma aldosterone concentration (PAC) and direct renin (DR) were measured using two novel automated chemiluminescence assays (IDS-iSYS; Boldon, UK) and compared to the S...

Context: Unilateral adrenalectomy is the therapy of first choice in aldosterone producing adenoma (APA). Improvement of blood pressure (BP) and hypokalemia is achieved in the majority of patients. Because of hypoaldosteronism, hyperkalemia can develop in the postoperative course. Our aim was to analyze the frequency of hyperkalemia, to determine the cause of hypoaldosteronism and to assess the influence of preoperative mineralocorticoid antagonist (MRA) therapy at our center.<...

Context: Recent studies showed a high prevalence of anxiety and depressive symptoms in patients with primary hyperaldosteronism (PA). A cross-sectional analysis suggested only minor improvement following adrenalectomy (ADX) and mineralocorticoidreceptor antagonist (MRA) therapy.Objective: Our aim was to determine the course of anxiety and depression in untreated patients.Design: We investigated 15 patients with PA at time of diagno...

Primary Aldosteronism (PA) is the most frequent cause of endocrine hypertension. Three forms of familial hyperaldosteronism (FH) have been described, named FH-I to -III. Recently, a mutation of KCNJ5 has been shown to be associated with FH-III, whereas the cause of FH-II is still unknown. In this study we searched for mutations in KCNJ5 in 46 patients from 21 families with FH, in which FH-I was excluded. We identified a new germline G151E mutation in two PA affected subjects f...