If 5 centers captured 555 patients with Conn’s syndrome over 16 years—22 patients per year and per center—then I have serious doubts whether “5% to 12% of patients with high blood pressure”—that is, 1.2 million people in Germany—have Conn’s syndrome.
In 20 years working as a specialist in internal medicine I have treated many patients with treatment resistant hypertension. I have often ordered tests for aldosterone and renin, which have almost never given any indication of Conn’s syndrome. Are there any epidemiological data that prove the frequency of Conn’s syndrome in a more convincing manner than the estimates mentioned in the article?
References
- 1.Schirpenbach C, Segmiller F, Diederich S, et al. The diagnosis and treatment of primary hyperaldosteronism in Germany—results on 555 patients from the German Conn Registry. Dtsch Arztebl Int. 2009;106(18):305–311. doi: 10.3238/arztebl.2009.0305. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]