High blood pressure is a common but serious health condition. Often called a “silent killer,” it can lead to heart disease, stroke, and kidney problems. It’s usually compared to over-inflating a balloon—the more pressure inside, the greater the chance of it bursting.
For many people, there’s no clear reason why their blood pressure is high, and they must take medication for the rest of their lives just to keep it under control.
But now, a major breakthrough by researchers in the UK may offer a real cure for some of these people. Doctors from Queen Mary University of London, Barts Hospital, and Cambridge University Hospital have developed a new type of CT scan that can find tiny hormone-producing lumps in the adrenal glands—something that has been extremely hard to detect until now.
These lumps were found in about 1 in 20 people with high blood pressure. Even better, in some of the patients, removing the lump completely cured their condition.
The adrenal glands are small organs that sit above the kidneys. They make hormones that help control things like stress, metabolism, and blood pressure. One of these hormones is aldosterone, which tells the body to hold onto salt.
Too much aldosterone causes the body to retain salt and lose potassium, leading to high blood pressure. Some people have a small lump on one adrenal gland that makes too much aldosterone, but until now, these lumps were very hard to detect.
For over 60 years, doctors have struggled to find a simple way to spot these hormone-producing lumps. The only test available was complicated, painful, and not very reliable. It was also only available in a few hospitals, meaning most people never got tested at all.
That’s where the new scan comes in. In this study, 128 patients with aldosterone-related high blood pressure were tested using a special CT scan along with a urine test. The CT scan uses a dye called metomidate that sticks to the cells making aldosterone. The dye is mildly radioactive, but it’s safe for patients and helps the lumps “glow” for a few minutes so doctors can easily find them.
The scan worked incredibly well. It was fast, painless, and effective in every single patient tested. It not only found the lumps but also showed which patients could benefit from surgery to remove the lump and potentially stop taking blood pressure medicine altogether.
In two-thirds of the patients, the scan showed a small lump on one adrenal gland that was making too much aldosterone. These lumps were benign (not cancer), and once removed, many of the patients saw their blood pressure return to normal.
Professor Morris Brown, one of the lead researchers, explained that these lumps are tiny and usually hidden in regular scans. But with this new dye, the lumps can be seen clearly, offering doctors a clear target for treatment. Until now, about 99% of these cases were missed because there simply wasn’t a good way to find them.
Professor William Drake, another leader of the project, praised the team’s dedication, especially during the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. He said their work is a huge step forward in helping people who haven’t had answers for their high blood pressure.
This new study also supports previous research from the same team showing that in 5–10% of people with high blood pressure, a genetic mutation causes their adrenal glands to produce too much aldosterone. These patients usually don’t respond well to standard medications and are more likely to have heart attacks or strokes.
Published in Nature Medicine, this research could change the lives of many people who have lived with unexplained high blood pressure. It gives new hope that, with the right tools, doctors can finally identify and treat one hidden cause of this common and dangerous condition.
If you care about high blood pressure, please read studies that early time-restricted eating could help improve blood pressure, and natural coconut sugar could help reduce blood pressure and artery stiffness.
For more health information, please see recent studies about added sugar in your diet linked to higher blood pressure, and results showing vitamin D could improve blood pressure in people with diabetes.
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