Prevalence of Cardiovascular Disease and Its Risk Factors in Primary Aldosteronism

There have been several clinical studies examining the factors associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD) in patients with primary aldosteronism (PA); however, their results have left it unclear whether CVD is affected by the plasma aldosterone concentration or hypokalemia. We assessed the PA database established by the multicenter JPAS (Japan Primary Aldosteronism Study) and compared the prevalence of CVD among patients with PA with that among age-, sex-, and blood pressure-matched essential hypertension patients and participants with hypertension in a general population cohort. We also performed binary logistic regression analysis to determine which parameters significantly increased the odds ratio for CVD. Of the 2582 patients with PA studied, the prevalence of CVD, including stroke (cerebral infarction, cerebral hemorrhage, or subarachnoid hemorrhage), ischemic heart disease (myocardial infarction or angina pectoris), and heart failure, was 9.4% (stroke, 7.4%; ischemic heart disease, 2.1%; and heart...