Adrenal scintigraphy in low renin essential hypertension

Adrenal scintigraphy was performed on 23 patients with low renin essential hypertension (LREH). After baseline scintigraphy was shown not to be helpful, 13 of these 23 patients underwent dexamethasone suppression adrenal scintigraphy. Four adrenal imaging patterns were observed: unilateral imaging with adenoma; bilateral early or late imaging with hyperplasia; no uptake with normal adrenals. These imaging patterns were shown to be predictive of the individual patient's response to spironolactone administration of functional adrenal cortical abnormalities in LREH supplies direct evidence for the hypothesis that LREH has an adrenal mineralocorticoid etiology.