Objective To assess the effectiveness of the quotient of serum sodium to urinary sodium divided by (serum potassium) 2 to urinary potassium (SUSPPUP) in screening for primary aldosteronism (PA).Methods Among 952 patients with hypertension who had renin activity,aldosterone measurements and concomitant serum and urinary biochemistry data,204 patients were diagnosed as cases of PA and 261 as cases of essential hypertension.Diagnosis of PA was made in accordance with established laboratory criteria including renin activity and aldosterone,plasma aldosterone concentration/plasma renin activity (ARR),and saline loading test.The SUSPPUP ratio with the ARR were compared in two groups.Results The area under the curve of SUSPPUP and ARR was 0.797 and 0.796 respectively according to receiver operating characteristic curve,optimal cutoff of SUSPPUP was 1.0,the sensitivity and specificity of SUSPPUP was 98.9％ and 81％ respectively.Conclusions The SUSPPUP ratio is an inexpensive and rapid tool to assess the extent of mineralocorticoid excess,therefore,SUSPPUP ratio can be applied to screen PA in hypertensive patients.

Objectives To investigate the relationship between obstructive sleep apnea hypoventilation syndrome (OSAHS), insulin resistance (IR) and metabolic syndrome (MS), as well as to explore the possible mechanism of MS caused by OSAHS. Methods We recruited 186 hospitalized patients with hypertensions, who were divided into four groups based on their nocturnal polygraphs recordings, 35 as controls (group Ⅰ), 61 with mild (group Ⅱ), 52 with moderate (group Ⅲ) and 38 with severe OSAHS (group Ⅳ). They all underwent measurements including body height, body weight, waist circumference (WC), systolic and diastolic blood pressure (SBP and DBP), serum uric acid, creatinine, fasting plasma glucose, fasting plasma insulin, serum total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein-cholesterul, low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol and triglyceride. Results One hundred and two patients with OSAHS (67.6 percent) also suffered of MS, 33 (86.8 percent) of them with severe OSAHS. There was no significant difference in age, gender, fasting plasma glucose, total cholesterol, high-density lipoprutein-cholesterul, low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol and triglyceride among the four groups (P>0.05). Body mass index (BMI), WC, ratio of serum uric acid to creatinine and DBP were all significantly higher in patients with severe OSAHS than those in patients with mild and moderate OSAHS and controls (P<0.01). SBP was significantly higher in patients with severe OSAHS than that in those with mild and moderate OSAHS (P<0.01). Insulin resistance was significantly severer in patients with severe OSAHS than that in those with mild OSAHS and controls (P<0.01). Results of multivariate linear regression analysis showed that insulin resistance was correlated with BMI and reversely correlated with minimal blood oxygen saturation, and minimal blood oxygen saturation reversely correlated with WC and ratio of uric acid to creatinine. Condusions Hypoxemia and obesity may promote development of insulin resistance. Patients of hypertension complicated with OSAHS tend to develop MS, particularly in those with severe OSAHS.

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One hundred and fifty-six patients with primary aldosteronism(PA)and 189 patients with essential hypertension (EH) were included in this study.The value of estimate glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) was calculated by MDRD equation.The plasma levels of aldosterone,triglycerides,creatinine and fasting glucose were measured.The plasma creatine,24 hour urine albumin excretion in PA patients were higher and eGFR and plasma aldosterone were lower than those in EH patients ( all P ＜ 0.01 ).Multiple regression analysis revealed that the plasma concentrations of aldosterone ( P =0.003 ) and creatinine ( P =0.001 ) were independent predictors of eGFR.

Objective To investigate the association between KCNJ5 gene polymorphism and primary hyperaldosteronism(PA).Methods A total of 248 PA patients and 816 essential hypertension (EH) patients were enrolled in this study,TaqMan assay was used to detect the rs1221497 polymorphism of KCNJ5 gene.Results The genotypes of rs1221497 were in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium in both PA group and EH group,the genotype frequencies ofGG,GC,CC were 208,39,1 in PA group and 631,177,8 in EH group respectively,the allele frequencies in the two groups were 455,41 and 1 439,193 respectively.The frequencies of GG genotype and G allele in PA group were significantly higher than those in EH group.Logistic regression showed that GG genotype was closely associated with PA after adjusting age.Conclusions GG genotype and G allele may contribute to the occurrence of PA.

The clinical data of 330 patients with primary aldosteronism (PA) from January 2006 to March 2010 were retrospectively analyzed. The prevalence of 1, 2, and 3 stage hypertension in these subjects was 3.64％,20. 91％, and 75.45 ％, respectively. Of all PA patients, 89.09％ were young adults and 81.82％ were overweight or obese. There was a marked preponderance of male patients in the overweight or obese group ( P＜0. 01 ). The incidence of hypokalemia was 32. 12％. The concentration of serum potassium was not associated with the disease course. Logistic regression showed that the concentration of plasma aldosterone was an independent risk factor of hypokalemia in PA patients( P＜0. 01 ). 79. 09％ PA patients presented the plasma aldosterone level over 12 ng/dl and the renin activity level of less than 1 ng · ml-1 · h-1. The aldosterone-to-rennin activity ratio was ＞20 in 94.24％ of the patients with PA.

OBJECTIVETo assess the association between polymorphisms of rs3740835(C/A) and rs2604204(A/C) in KCNJ5 gene with the susceptibility to unilateral and bilateral primary aldosteronism (PA).

METHODSA total of 1043 subjects were studied, which included 83 unilateral PA patients,142 bilateral PA patients and 818 essential hypertensive(EH) patients. The polymorphism of KCNJ5 gene at rs3740835(C/A) and rs2604204(A/C) position were analyzed with a TaqMan genotyping technique.

RESULTSFrequencies of A allele and AA+AC genotype at rs3740835(C/A) in unilateral PA group were significantly higher than EH group (P < 0.05). However, the above frequencies did not show a statistical significance between bilateral PA group and EH group (P > 0.05). No statistical difference was detected in the distribution of alleles or genotypes at rs2604204 (A/C) between unilateral PA and EH group or between bilateral PA and EH group. Haplotypic frequencies of C-A and A-A in unilateral PA group were significantly higher and lower than EH group, respectively. However, there was no statistical difference in the haplotype distribution between bilateral PA and EH groups.

CONCLUSIONRs3740835(C/A) polymorphism may be associated with unilateral PA but not with bilateral PA. rs2604204(A/C) polymorphism is not associated with either unilateral or bilateral PA. Haplotype C-A and A-A may respectively be susceptibility factor and protective factor for unilateral PA. No haplotype has been found to associate with bilateral PA.

Adult ; Female ; G Protein-Coupled Inwardly-Rectifying Potassium Channels ; genetics ; Haplotypes ; Humans ; Hyperaldosteronism ; genetics ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Polymorphism, Genetic