High blood pressure, or hypertension, is a serious health issue that can lead to heart disease, strokes, and other problems. Imagine a balloon filled with too much air—it might burst. That’s similar to what happens in our bodies when blood pressure gets too high.
For many people with high blood pressure, there’s no clear reason why it happens, and they often need to take medication for the rest of their lives to keep it under control.
However, doctors from Queen Mary University of London, Barts Hospital, and Cambridge University Hospital have discovered a new way to treat high blood pressure for some patients by finding tiny lumps in a hormone gland.
A Breakthrough in Diagnosing and Treating High Blood Pressure
These tiny lumps, found in the adrenal glands, are a major breakthrough. In about one out of every twenty people with high blood pressure, these lumps produce too much of a hormone called aldosterone, which leads to high blood pressure.
The exciting news is that removing these lumps can cure the condition, allowing some patients to stop taking their blood pressure medications altogether.
This discovery addresses a problem that has puzzled doctors for 60 years—how to find these small, hormone-producing lumps. In the past, the only way to find them was through a complicated and often unreliable test that was available in only a few hospitals.
Now, thanks to a new type of CT scan combined with a simple urine test, doctors can easily locate these lumps and determine which patients might be cured by having them removed.
How the Study Worked
The study involved 128 patients whose high blood pressure was linked to aldosterone, the hormone produced by the adrenal glands. Doctors used a new scan that included a dye called metomidate, which only sticks to the lump that’s making too much aldosterone.
This dye is slightly radioactive but safe for patients. When the dye was injected, the lumps became visible on the scan for a few minutes, allowing doctors to see exactly where the problem was.
This new method is fast, painless, and works in all patients, unlike the older test that often failed. The old test also couldn’t predict which patients would be completely cured by surgery, but the combination of this new scan and the urine test can accurately identify those patients.
Why This Discovery Is Important
Professor Morris Brown, one of the doctors leading the study, explained that these lumps are so small that they’re easy to miss on a regular CT scan. But with this new scan, the lumps become visible for a short time, making it clear that they are causing the high blood pressure.
Once doctors remove the lumps, the high blood pressure can be cured. Until now, almost all of these lumps went undetected because the tests were too difficult or not widely available. This new method could change that.
Professor William Drake, another study leader, emphasized that the discovery was the result of many years of hard work by the research team.
He also noted that the same group played an important role during the COVID-19 pandemic, and he is confident that future research in this area will continue to advance.
Understanding Aldosterone and High Blood Pressure
Previous research by this same team showed that in 5% to 10% of people with high blood pressure, the cause is a genetic change in the adrenal glands. This change causes the glands to produce too much aldosterone.
When the body has too much of this hormone, it holds onto more salt, which increases blood pressure. People with high levels of aldosterone don’t respond well to standard blood pressure medications and are at a higher risk of heart attacks and strokes.
This discovery could offer a new path for treating high blood pressure in people whose condition is caused by these hormone-producing lumps. With further research, more people may be able to benefit from this life-changing treatment.
This study was published in the journal Nature Medicine.
If you care about blood pressure, please read studies about unhealthy habits that could increase high blood pressure risk, and eating eggs in a healthy diet may reduce risks of diabetes, high blood pressure.
For more information about blood pressure, please see recent studies that early time-restricted eating could help improve blood pressure, and results showing 12 foods that lower blood pressure.
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