Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Assessment of the RAAS has been recently granted a much greater role in the evaluation of patients with arterial hypertension (AH). There is no single test efficient in selection of patients for second-step etiological investigation.

Methods: 198 consecutive patients- 119 women (60%) and 79 men (40%)- hospitalized in years 2009-2011 at the Clinical Department of Endocrinology UMB as to diagnose PA. In each patient PRA and PAC (basic and after 2l NaCl infusion) were evaluated.

Results: The percentage of patients with PAC ≥15 ng/ ml was 53% and percentage of patients with PRA ≤0.1 ng/ ml per h was 20%. The percentage of patients screened for PA in which ARR exceeded consecutive cut-offs of 20, 30, 40 and 50 were respectively 57, 45, 34 and 29%. Among 15 patients in which PAC after infusion of two liters of saline was ≥6.5 ng/ dl (8.6%) in 13 (6.6%) PA was diagnosed.

Conclusion: obligatory use of tests confirming autonomy of aldosterone secretion in patients screened for PA seems cost-effective in limiting number of patients for further diagnosing.

Declaration of interest: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest that could be perceived as prejudicing the impartiality of the research project.

Funding: This research did not receive any specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sector.