Home
Department of Clinical Science

Midway evaluation - Marianne Aardal Grytaas

Main content

ABSTRAKT

Primary aldosteronism (PA) denotes non-suppressible hypersecretion of aldosterone from the adrenal glands, and is the most common cause of secondary hypertension. These patients often have drug resistant hypertension, and have higher cardiovascular morbidity and mortality than patients with essential hypertension. It is therefore important to efficiently detect cases of PA, since surgical cure or specific medical treatment can be offered.

One main objective of my PhD-project has been to detect and describe the characteristics of all PA-patients diagnosed in Western Norway, as well as to evaluate their long-term treatment outcome. We have studied 108 patients given the PA-diagnosis until 2012, and we have since 2013 included all newly diagnosed PA-patients in a longitudinal study. We have also determined the success rate of the procedure adrenal vein sampling which is the gold standard for subtesting of PA, using intra-procedural point of care cortisol analysis.

Another objective has been to explore the cardiac effects of PA, using cardiac MRI to assess myocardial mass and function, cardiac fibrosis and coronary flow during stress, in a subgroup of 15 PA-patients compared with age and sex-matched healthy controls.

Finally, we are planning to explore the dynamics of aldosterone secretion, using a microdialysis technique.