Primary aldosteronism in elderly, old, and very old patients

Application value of adrenal venous sampling in the surgical treatment of primary aldosteronism

The diagnosis of primary aldosteronism (PA) is critical for determining treatment strategies. The aim of the present study was to investigate the clinical value of preoperative adrenal venous sampling (AVS) for determining the benefit of PA surgery. Patients diagnosed with PA at Liaocheng People's Hospital (Liaocheng, China) between January 2015 and December 2020 were selected and divided into two groups: Group A underwent adrenal computed tomography (CT) only, whereas Group B underwent adrenal CT and successful AVS. Subsequently, the improvement rate of adrenal CT and adrenal CT + AVS in the treatment of PA was compared. A total of 164 patients were included, with an average age of 46.69±13.64 years. There were 62 patients in Group A and 102 in Group B. Among the patients diagnosed with unilateral lesions on adrenal CT scan, 82.61% of patients in group A and 87.72% in group B showed improvement; however, the difference was not significant (χ2=0.534, P=0.465). Among the patients diagnosed with bilateral lesions on adrenal CT images, 62.50% of patients in Group A and 91.11% of patients in Group B showed improvement (P=0.019). In conclusion, unilateral adrenal lesions detected by CT did not benefit significantly from surgical decision-making after AVS. AVS should be advised for all patients with bilateral adrenal PA who are willing to undergo adrenal surgery, which is conducive to correct lateral segmentation and improve treatment choices.

Comparison of saline infusion test and captopril challenge test in the diagnosis of Chinese with primary aldosteronism in different age groups

Background

To explore the diagnostic accuracy and the optimal cutoff value between the saline infusion test (SIT) and captopril challenge test (CCT) [including the value and suppression of plasma aldosterone concentration (PAC)] for primary aldosteronism (PA) diagnosing.

Methods

A total of 318 patients with hypertension were consecutively enrolled, including 126 patients with PA and 192 patients with essential hypertension (EH), in this observational study. The characteristics of patients and laboratory examinations were collected and compared. The comparison between SIT and CCT was carried by drawing the receiver operator characteristic curve (ROC) and calculating the area under the curve (AUC) to explore the diagnostic accuracy and the optimal cutoff value.

Results

The average age was 51.59 ± 10.43 in the PA group and 45.72 ± 12.44 in the EH group (p<0.05). The optimal cutoff value was 10.7 ng/dL for post-CCT PAC, 6.8 ng/dL for post-SIT PAC, and 26.9% for suppression of post-CCT PAC. The diagnostic value of post-CCT PAC was the highest with 0.831 for the AUC and 0.552 for the Youden index. The optimal cutoff value for patients who were <50 years old was 11.5 ng/dL for post-CCT PAC and 8.4 ng/dL for post-SIT PAC. The suppression of post-CCT PAC turned to 18.2% for those of age 50 or older.

Conclusion

Compared with SIT, CCT had a higher diagnostic value when post-CCT PAC was used as the diagnostic criterion in Chinese people, while the selection of diagnostic thresholds depended on patient age.

Clinical and biochemical predictors and predictive model of primary aldosteronism

Background

Primary aldosteronism (PA) is the most common cause of secondary hypertension. The diagnosis of PA currently requires multiple complicated measures. The aims of this study were to identify easy-to-obtain clinical and biochemical predictors, and to create predictive model to facilitate the identification of a patient at high risk of having PA.

Materials and methods

This 2-year retrospective cohort study was conducted at a tertiary care medical center. A total of 305 patients who had been tested for plasma aldosterone concentration (PAC) and plasma renin activity (PRA) were identified. Patients with incomplete results of PAC and PRA and those who had an established diagnosis of Cushing’s syndrome or pheochromocytoma were excluded. Logistic regression analysis was used to identify significant predictors and to create predictive model of PA.

Results

PA was diagnosed in 128 of the patients (41.96%). Significant predictive factors for PA were age >60 years (OR 2.12, p = 0.045), female (OR 1.65, p<0.001), smoking (OR 2.79, p<0.001), coronary artery disease (OR 2.29, p<0.001), obstructive sleep apnea (OR 1.50, p = 0.017), systolic blood pressure >160 mmHg (OR 1.15, P<0.001), serum potassium <3 mEq/L (OR 3.72, p = 0.030), fasting blood glucose >126 mg/dL (OR 0.48, p = 0.001) and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) <60 mL/min/1.73m2 (OR 1.79, p = 0.001). Predictive model was created with a total score ranged from 0 to 42. A score above 7.5 indicated a higher probability of having PA with a sensitivity of 72% and a specificity of 70%. The diagnostic performance of the predictive model based on area under the curve was 71%.

Conclusions

The clinical and biochemical predictive factors including predictive model identified in this study can be employed as an additional tool to help identify patients at risk of having PA and could help reduce the number of screening and confirmation tests required for PA.

Differences in the presentation and evolution of primary aldosteronism in elderly (≥65 years) and young patients (<65 years)

OBJECTIVE

To compare the presentation and evolution of primary aldosteronism (PA) in the elderly (≥65 years) and young patients (<65 years).

METHODS

A retrospective multicenter study was performed in 20 Spanish hospitals of PA patients in follow-up between 2018 and 2021.

RESULTS

Three hundred fifty-two patients with PA <65 years and 88 patients ≥65 years were included. Older PA patients had a two-fold higher prevalence of type 2 diabetes, dyslipidemia, and cerebrovascular disease, but these differences disappeared after adjusting for hypertension duration. At diagnosis, diastolic blood pressure was lower than in young patients (83.3 ± 11.54 vs 91.6 ± 14.46 mmHg, P < 0.0001). No differences in the rate of overall correct cannulation (56.5% vs 42.3%, P = 0.206) or the diagnosis of unilaterality (76.9% vs 62.5%, P = 0.325) in the adrenal venous sampling (AVS) was observed between the elderly and young groups. However, there was a lower proportion of PA patients who underwent adrenalectomy in the elderly group than in the younger group (22.7% (n = 20) vs 37.5% (n = 132), P = 0.009). Nevertheless, no differences in the rate of postsurgical biochemical (100% (n = 14) vs 92.8% (n = 90), P = 0.299) and hypertension cure (38.6% (n = 51) vs 25.0% (n = 5), P = 0.239) were observed between both groups.

CONCLUSION

Older patients with PA have a worse cardiometabolic profile than young patients with PA that it is related to a longer duration of hypertension. However, the results of the AVS, and adrenalectomy are similar in both groups. Therefore, the management of elderly patients with PA should be based not only on age, but rather on the overall medical, physical, social, and mental characteristics of the patients.