Therapeutic results of primary aldosteronism with special reference to renal or renovascular lesions.

A study was made of 9 patients with primary aldosteronism due to aldosterone-producing adenoma (APA) and 8 subjects with idiopathic adrenal hyperplasia (IHA) to clarify the pathogenesis of sustained hypertension after surgical or non-surgical treatment. Following each treatment, a complete improvement of hypertension was obtained in 12 patients (6 APA, 6 IHA), while 5 (3 APA, 2 IHA) showed still hypertensive status. Renal or renovascular lesions were prominent only in the hypertension-unchanged group. Under regular sodium diet, the ratio of urinary excretion of sodium to creatinine of this hypertensive group was significantly lower than that of the hypertension-improved group. However, the results of other renal function tests were similar in both groups. After respective treatments, suppressed plasma renin activity and elevated plasma aldosterone concentration were improved in all patients. In addition, patients of both groups showed normal response of the renin-aldosterone system following diuretic and dietary induced sodium and volume depletion. Based on these findings, renal or renovascular lesions appear to play an important role in the pathogenesis of maintenance of hypertension in this disorder after respective treatments.