刘欣雨
中国医学科学院阜外医院 内科
OBJECTIVE:The aim of this study is to evaluate performance of aldosterone-to-renin ratio (ARR) before washout of antihypertensive drugs as a screening test for primary aldosteronism (PA).METHODS:This retrospective analysis included consecutive patients suspected of having secondary hypertension during a period from January 2017 to May 2022 at authors' institute. For inclusion in the final analysis, ARR must be available prior to as well as after discontinuation of antihypertensives. Patients with ARR ≥2.4(ng/dL)/(μIU/mL) after washout proceeded to confirmatory tests. Diagnosis of PA was established based on positive result of the confirmatory test. Diagnostic accuracy of ARR prior to the washout in predicting PA are shown as sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV).RESULTS:The analysis included a total of 1306 patients [median age of 50.2 (41.0-59.0) years, 64.0% male]. Confirmatory tests showed PA in 215(16.5%) patients and essential hypertension (EH) in the remaining 1091(83.5%) patients. In comparison to the second screening test, the first screening test (before washout of antihypertensives) yielded lower plasma aldosterone and higher renin, and consequently lower ARR in both the PA and EH groups. At a cutoff of 0.7(ng/dL)/(μIU/ml), ARR before washout had 96.3% sensitivity, 61.2% specificity, 0.33 PPV and 0.99 NPV. At a lower cutoff of 0.5(ng/dL)/(μIU/ml), the sensitivity, specificity, PPV and NPV are 97.7%, 52.0%, 0.29 and 0.99.CONCLUSIONS:ARR prior to washout of antihypertensives is a sensitive screening test for PA. Washout of antihypertensives could be omitted and further investigation for PA is not warranted if ARR was ≤ 0.7(ng/dL)/(μIU/ml) before washout.
The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism 2024
Objective:To examine the consistency of plasma aldosterone concentration at 1 and 2 h in the captopril challenge test (CCT) and to explore the possibility of replacing 2-h aldosterone concentration with 1-h aldosterone concentration for diagnosis of primary aldosteronism (PA).Methods:This retrospective analysis included a total of 204 hypertensive patients suspected of having PA. Subjects received oral captopril challenge at 50 mg (25 mg if the systolic blood pressure was <120 mmHg), and plasma aldosterone concentration and direct renin concentration were measured at 1 and 2 h afterward (chemiluminescence immunoassay Liaison® DiaSorin, Italy). Sensitivity and specificity were used to reflect the diagnostic performance of 1-h aldosterone concentration using 2-h aldosterone concentration (11 ng/dl as the cutoff) as the reference. A receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was also conducted.Results:Among the 204 included patients [median age of 57.0 (48.0-61.0) years, 54.4% men], a diagnosis of PA was established in 94 patients. Aldosterone concentration in the patients with essential hypertension was 8.40 (interquartile range 7.05-11.00) ng/dl at 1 h and 7.65 (5.98-9.30) ng/dl at 2 h (P < 0.001). In patients with PA, aldosterone concentration was 16.80 (12.58-20.50) ng/dl at 1 h and 15.55 (12.60-20.85) ng/dl at 2 h (P > 0.999). At a cutoff of 11 ng/dl, the sensitivity and specificity of using 1-h aldosterone concentration to diagnose PA were 87.2% and 78.2%, respectively. A higher cutoff of 12.5 ng/ml increased specificity to 90.0% but decreased sensitivity to 75.5%. A lower cutoff of 9.3 ng/ml increased sensitivity to 97.9% but decreased specificity to 65.4%.Conclusions:When diagnosing PA with CCT, 1-h aldosterone concentration could not be used to replace 2-h aldosterone concentration.
Frontiers in endocrinology 2023
The morbidity of diabetes mellitus has been increasing annually. As a progressive metabolic disorder, chronic complications occur in the late stage of diabetes. In addition, cardiovascular diseases account for the major cause of morbidity and mortality among the diabetic population worldwide. Diabetic cardiomyopathy (DCM) is a type of diabetic heart disease. Patients with DCM show symptoms and signs of heart failure while no specific cause, such as coronary disease, hypertension, alcohol consumption, or other structural heart diseases has been identified. The pathogenesis of DCM is complex and has not been well understood until recently. MicroRNAs (miRs) belong to a novel family of highly conserved, short, non-coding, single-stranded RNA molecules that regulate transcriptional and post-transcriptional gene expression. Furthermore, recent studies have demonstrated an association between miRs and DCM. In the current review, the role of miRs in the pathogenesis of DCM is summarized. It was concluded that miRs contribute to the regulation of cardiomyocyte hypertrophy, myocardial fibrosis, cardiomyocyte apoptosis, mitochondrial dysfunction, myocardial electrical remodeling, epigenetic modification and various other pathophysiological processes of DCM. These studies may provide novel insights into targets for prevention and treatment of the disease.
Biomedical reports 2017
