Jan 19, 2023 07:00:00

A 10-minute scan found to detect and treat the most common causes of high blood pressure

Doctors at Queen Mary University of London, St Bartholomew's Hospital and Cambridge University Hospital are using a new type of CT scan to shine light on small

nodules in hormone glands and remove them to treat high blood pressure. I did.

[11C]metomidate PET-CT versus adrenal vein sampling for diagnosing surgically curable primary aldosteronism: a prospective, within-patient trial | Nature Medicine
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-022-02114-5

-Queen Mary University of London
https://www.qmul.ac.uk/media/news/2023/smd/ten-minute-scan-enables-detection-and-cure-of-the-commonest-cause-of-high-blood-pressure. html

Most people with hypertension have no known cause and require lifelong medical treatment. Previous studies have shown that 5-10% of people with high blood pressure overproduce the steroid hormone aldosterone due to genetic mutations in the adrenal glands. In this way, primary aldosteronism, one of the causes of hypertension, can be cured or greatly improved by adrenal surgery, but standard preoperative tests are invasive , such as catheterization. Currently, less than 1% of patients with adrenal disease have a chance of being cured.

There are two non-invasive tests for this condition: metomidate positron CT scan and adrenal vein sampling. A team from Queen Mary University of London and others focused on the metomidate positron CT scan and conducted a study comparing the accuracy of these two testing methods.

The team tested 128 patients whose hypertension was found to be caused by primary aldosteronism and found that two-thirds of those with increased aldosterone secretion were caused by adrenal glands. It turned out to be derived from a benign nodule in one. After understanding this, it seems that the nodule could be safely removed by performing a metomidate positron CT scan using metomidate that adheres only to the aldosterone-producing nodule.

The scan was quick, painless, and technically successful in all patients, with the same accuracy as conventional catheterization.

'Aldosterone-producing nodules are very small and easily missed on routine CT scans,' said study co-investigator Professor Morris Brown, Professor of Endocrinology and Hypertension at Queen Mary University of London. Injecting metomidate with a flash of light for a few minutes can reveal the cause, and can usually be treated afterward. I do,' he said.