Performance of the basal aldosterone to renin ratio and of the renin stimulation test by furosemide and upright posture in screening for aldosterone-producing adenoma in low renin hypertensives.

An aldosterone-producing adenoma causes surgically correctable hypertension. Screening tests should be assessed for their accuracy and ability to detect aldosterone-producing adenoma in an appropriate population. This study aims to validate the accuracy and efficacy of the basal plasma aldosterone concentration (picomoles per liter) to PRA (nanograms per liter/sec) ratio and of combined stimulation of PRA by the furosemide and upright posture test in screening for aldosterone-producing adenoma in hypertensives with PRA less than 0.28 ng/liter.sec (1 ng/ml.h). Thirty-five aldosterone-producing adenoma and 79 nonaldosterone-producing adenoma patients were retrospectively selected from among 159 patients examined with the furosemide and upright posture test between 1989 and 1999. Selection criteria were based on blood pressure, PRA, and plasma aldosterone concentration. Diagnosis was based on surgical outcome, computed tomography scans with adrenal scintigraphy, or venous sampling. The accuracy and efficacy of basal (aldosterone/PRA ratio) and dynamic (postfurosemide and upright posture PRA) screening tests were assessed based on test sensitivity, specificity, likelihood ratio, and receiver operating characteristics. At a cut-off value of 3,200, the aldosterone/PRA ratio had a high sensitivity of 1.0 and a low specificity of 0.61. The importance was strengthened by using a multilevel likelihood ratio, i.e. positive (aldosterone/PRA ratio >10,000), negative (aldosterone/PRA ratio <3,200), and neutral (intermediate aldosterone/PRA ratio) levels. Patients with a positive level had a likelihood ratio of 7.1 and were likely to have an aldosterone-producing adenoma. The aldosterone/PRA ratio enclosed a larger area under the receiver operating characteristics curve (0.905) than did postfurosemide and upright posture PRA (0.826). In conclusion, the plasma aldosterone concentration to PRA ratio is an effective screening and diagnostic test when a triple level likelihood ratio is applied. The furosemide and upright posture test did not raise the posttest probability over that obtained using the aldosterone/PRA ratio.