Current Screening Thresholds May Miss Half of Patients with Primary Aldosterone, a Leading Cause of Severe High Blood Pressure, Finds Study in Hypertension
PR Newswire•19/10/2026•07:57 ET
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Key Highlights
- ➤2025 criteria identified 13.0% of patients as positive for primary aldosteronism
- ➤Permissive criteria identified 26.2% of patients, approximately doubling detection
- ➤Study analyzed deidentified lab results from 60,449 U.S. patients
- ➤79.0% of additional cases had aldosterone levels between 5 and 7.5 ng/dL
- ➤Quest Diagnostics researchers say broader screening may enable earlier intervention
Expert Statements
Marco Marcelli, MD, Lead author and Medical Director at Quest Diagnostics
“Our findings demonstrate that current international clinical guidelines for diagnosing primary aldosteronism are optimized to identify advanced disease but may be less sensitive for earlier or milder forms of PA.”
Marco Marcelli, MD, Lead author and Medical Director at Quest Diagnostics
“Some patients with PA spend years on a diagnostic journey before learning their hypertension, headaches and other symptoms are due to a highly treatable condition.”
Marco Marcelli, MD, Lead author and Medical Director at Quest Diagnostics
“More expansive screening and diagnostic criteria may help the medical community to quickly identify these individuals hiding in plain sight before irreversible heart damage and other adverse outcomes have occurred.”
Current Screening Thresholds May Miss Half of Patients with Primary Aldosterone, a Leading Cause of Severe High Blood Pressure, Finds Study in Hypertension PR Newswire
Half of patients with the hormonal disorder, which raises risk of heart attack, stroke and kidney disease, may be undiagnosed under current screening thresholds
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