Endocrine Abstracts

Primary aldosteronism (PA) is the most frequent form of endocrine hypertension. The identification of the subtype of PA is fundamental to distinguish between subtypes that benefit from surgery and subtypes that should be treated pharmacologically with mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists. CT scanning is the most sensitive imaging technique for the identification of adrenal nodules but lacks sensitivity and specificity. Also posture test and other clinical criteria of ‘h...

Primary aldosteronism is the most common form of secondary hypertension. The detection of primary aldosteronism is of particular importance, because it provides an opportunity for a targeted treatment (surgical for unilateral forms and medical with mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists for bilateral forms). PA diagnosis comprises screening, confirmation testing and subtype diagnosis.Guidelines recommend that all patients for whom the surgical treatment ...

Visinin-Like Protein-1 (Vsnl1) is a member of the EF-hand calcium sensor protein family that is expressed in the zona glomerulosa of the rat and human adrenal and upregulated in aldosterone-producing adenomas.We studied the expression pattern of Vsnl1 and co-localization with the CYP11B2 enzyme and the zona glomerulosa (ZG) marker Dlk1 (ZOG) using double and triple immunofluorescence in the adrenal of rats on a normal, high and low sodium diets. We also ...

Introduction: We report the largest case series of concomitant prolactinoma and aldosterone-producing adenoma (APA), diagnosed in four patients from the German Conn Registry and in three patients at the Hypertension Unit, University of Torino. A disproportionate number (five out of seven) presented with macro-prolactinomas indicating that elevated prolactin (PRL) concentrations may play a role in APA formation. Further, increased expression of PRLR in the zona glomeru...

Objective: Aldosterone-producing adenomas (APA) are a major cause of primary aldosteronism. Somatic mutations explain the excess aldosterone production in the majority of patients with APA with mutations in KCNJ5 encoding a potassium channel the most prevalent in most reported populations. Mechanisms driving cell proliferation are largely undefined.Design and method: Quantitative transcriptome analysis using RNA-seq was used to identify differen...

Differential diagnosis between bilateral adrenal hyperplasia (BAH) and aldosterone producing adenoma (APA) in aldosteronism remains challenging in many cases due to the high prevalence of incidentalomas during imaging techniques, the limited sensitivity of orthostatic testing and the technical difficulties of adrenal vein sampling (AVS).We investigated circadian variation in salivary aldosterone (SA) in patients with APA (n=22) and BAH (n=2...

Background: Aldosterone-producing adenomas (APA) are a major cause of primary aldosteronism. Somatic mutations explain the excess aldosterone production in the majority of patients with APA with mutations in the potassium channel KCNJ5 the most prevalent. In contrast, mechanisms driving cell proliferation are largely unresolved.Objective: To identify genes that modulate cell growth in APAs.Methods: Quantitative transcripto...

Objective: Primary aldosteronism (PA) is the most frequent cause of secondary hypertension. According to the Endocrine Society Guidelines, up to 50% of hypertensive patients should be screened for PA, using the aldosterone to renin (or plasma renin activity (PRA)) ratio (AARR and ARR respectively). The automated Diasorin LIAISON chemiluminescent immunoassay for renin and aldosterone measurement became available and in many laboratories is currently used instead of the classica...

Objective: Adrenal vein sampling (AVS) is recognised by Endocrine Society guidelines as the only reliable mean to distinguish between aldosterone producing adenomas and bilateral adrenal hyperplasia, the two most common subtypes of primary aldosteronism (PA). However, AVS protocols are not standardised and vary between centres. The objective of the present study was to assess whether the presence or absence of contralateral adrenal (CL) suppression has an impact on the postope...

Background: Hypertension affects more than 30% of the adult population worldwide and is a major cardiovascular risk factor. Identifying secondary causes of hypertension is key to offering targeted treatment and mitigating adverse health outcomes. We tested the performance of urine steroid metabolomics (USM), the computational analysis of 24-hour urine steroid metabolome data by machine learning, for diagnosing endocrine hypertension.<str...