Context: Adrenal venous sampling (AVS) is the current criterion standard lateralization technique in primary aldosteronism (PA). Japanese registry data found that 30% of patients with unilateral PA did not undergo adrenalectomy, but the reasons for this and whether the same pattern is seen internationally are unknown.
Objective: To assess the rate of AVS-guided adrenalectomy across an international cohort and identify factors that resulted in adrenalectomy not being performed in otherwise eligible patients.
Design, setting, and participants: Retrospective, multinational, multicenter questionnaire-based survey of management of PA patients from 16 centers between 2006 and 2018.
Main outcome measures: Rates of AVS implementation, AVS success rate, diagnosis of unilateral PA, adrenalectomy rate, and reasons why adrenalectomy was not undertaken in patients with unilateral PA.
Results: Rates of AVS implementation, successful AVS, and unilateral disease were 66.3%, 89.3% and 36.9% respectively in 4818 patients with PA. Unilateral PA and adrenalectomy rate in unilateral PA were lower in Japanese than in European centers (24.0% vs 47.6% and 78.2% vs 91.4% respectively). The clinical reasoning for not performing adrenalectomy in unilateral PA were more likely to be physician-derived in Japan and patient-derived in Europe. Physician-derived factors included non-AVS factors, such as good blood pressure control, normokalemia, and the absence of adrenal lesions on imaging, which were present before AVS.
Conclusion: Considering the various unfavorable aspects of AVS, stricter implementation and consideration of surgical candidacy prior to AVS will increase its diagnostic efficiency and utility.
Keywords: adrenalectomy; adrenal venous sampling; hyperaldosteronism; primary aldosteronism.
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