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Long-term blood pressure outcomes of patients with adrenal venous sampling-proven unilateral primary aldosteronism

Journal of Human Hypertension volume 34, pages 440–447 (2020)Cite this article

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Abstract

Primary aldosteronism (PA) is mainly treated by mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists or laparoscopic adrenalectomy (LA), but the effectiveness of surgical versus medical treatment in patients with adrenal venous sampling (AVS)-proven unilateral PA is unclear. Fifty-one consecutive patients with AVS-proven PA were enrolled. We compared the therapeutic effects between the surgery group (n = 21) and medication group (n = 30) by evaluating the complete control rate (CCR) of hypertension, blood pressure (BP), and number of antihypertensive drugs after a long-term follow-up (>12 months). The CCR of hypertension was assessed using a multivariate adjusted Cox proportional hazards regression model. After a mean follow-up of 21.18 ± 5.35 months, the CCR was significantly higher in the surgery than medication group (85.7% vs. 13.3%, respectively; p < 0.001). Before adjustment for covariates, the CCR of hypertension in patients who underwent LA was 7.75 times higher than that in patients who underwent medical treatment (95% CI, 2.33–25.78; p = 0.001); significant results were also shown in the adjusted models. Systolic and diastolic BP were also lower in the surgery than medication group (120.3 ± 12.99 vs. 133.54 ± 16.60 and 79.00 ± 7.62 vs. 87.35 ± 12.36 mmHg, respectively; p = 0.01 for both), as was the number of antihypertensive drugs (0.19 ± 0.51 vs. 2.33 ± 0.78, respectively; p < 0.001). The rate of hypokalemia was not significantly different between the two groups (0.0% vs. 13.3%, respectively; p = 0.13). In conclusion, AVS plays an essential role in the subtype diagnosis of PA, and surgical candidates with AVS-proven unilateral PA should be highly suggested to undergo LA.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Plan of China [grant number 2016YFC1300100], the CAMS Innovation Fund for Medical Science [grant number 2016-I2M-1-002], and the PUMC Youth Fund [grant number 2017-XHQN07].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Cardiology, Fuwai Hospital, National Center for Cardiovascular Disease, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, No. 167 Beilishi Road, Beijing, 100037, China

    Xu Meng, Wen-Jun Ma, Xiong-Jing Jiang, Pei-Pei Lu, Ying Zhang, Peng Fan, Jun Cai, Hui-Min Zhang, Lei Song, Hai-Ying Wu, Xian-Liang Zhou & Ying Lou

  2. Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Fuwai Hospital, National Center for Cardiovascular Disease, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, No. 167 Beilishi Road, Beijing, 100037, China

    Pei-Pei Lu

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41371_2019_241_MOESM1_ESM.docx

Supplementary Table 1. Changes in blood pressure and serum potassium level at follow-up in surgery group and medication group

Supplementary table 2.Univariate Cox model for covariates that may affect complete cure rate of hypertension

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Meng, X., Ma, WJ., Jiang, XJ. et al. Long-term blood pressure outcomes of patients with adrenal venous sampling-proven unilateral primary aldosteronism. J Hum Hypertens 34, 440–447 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41371-019-0241-8

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