Increased urinary aldosterone excretion is associated with subcutaneous not visceral, adipose tissue area in obese individuals: a possible manifestation of dysfunctional subcutaneous adipose tissue.

BACKGROUND: Aldosterone is reported to be associated with obesity and is a risk factor for metabolic syndrome. Metabolic abnormalities are more strongly associated with visceral adipose tissue (VAT) than with subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT).
OBJECTIVE: We examined whether aldosterone is more closely associated with VAT area than with SAT area in obese individuals.
METHODS: We enrolled 81 Japanese patients (46 men, mean age 43 ± 13 years and 35 women, mean age 53 ± 10 years) suspected of metabolic disorders and measured plasma and 24-h urinary aldosterone, as well as SAT and VAT areas. SAT and VAT areas were measured at the umbilical level by computed tomography.
RESULTS: Spearman's rank correlation analysis showed that urinary aldosterone was significantly and positively correlated with body mass index, waist circumference, SAT area, alanine aminotransferase, C-reactive protein, plasma immune-reactive insulin, plasma renin activity and estimated glomerular filtration rate, and negatively correlated with age and blood glucose. Urinary aldosterone was not correlated with VAT area (r = 0·013, P = 0·906). Multivariate regression analyses revealed that log SAT area, age and diastolic blood pressure were significant (P = 0·001, 0·001 and 0·032, respectively) predictors of log urinary aldosterone excretion rate.
CONCLUSION: Our results indicate that urinary aldosterone excretion is positively associated with SAT but not with VAT area in the middle-aged obese individuals.Urinary aldosterone is also negatively correlated with age.