ALDOSTERONE EXCRETION IN ESSENTIAL HYPERTENSION

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Abstract
A study was made of the incidence of primary aldosteronism in patients with hypertension. The 24-hour urinary excretion of aldosterone was determined along with a number of other laboratory indices. No patient was included who had frank renal, liver or endocrine disease, or cardiac failure. The urinary aldosterone values for 38 hypertensive patients were elevated compared to the values for 18 normotensive subjects (controls). Whereas the values for the controls were normally distributed, those for the hypertensive patients appeared to fall into two groups. Seventy-five per cent of the aldosterone values for the hypertensive patients were distributed in the same way as those for the normotensive subjects, but the other 25 per cent were definitely elevated above the control level (about 17.5 ug. per twenty-four hours). A chi square calculation confirmed the suspected heterogeneity of the data on the hypertensive group as a whole; a t test showed the difference in the mean values for the two groups of hypertensive patients to be highly significant. No correlation was found between the serum potassium or sodium level and the urinary excretion of aldosterone.

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