Abstract
BackgroundThe interaction between hyperaldosteronism and immune dysfunction has been reported and glucocorticoid co-secretion is frequently found in primary aldosteronism (PA). The aforementioned conditions raise the possibility of the infection risk; however, clinical episodes of sepsis have not been reported in PA.MethodsUsing Taiwan’s National Health Insurance Research Database between 1997 and 2009, we identified PA and aldosterone-producing adenoma (APA) matched with essential hypertension (EH) at a 1:1 ratio by propensity scores. The incidences of sepsis and mortality after the index date were evaluated, and the risk factors of outcomes were identified using adjusted Cox proportional hazards models and taking mortality as a competing risk.ResultsWe enrolled 2448 patients with PA (male, 46.08%; mean age, 48.4 years). There were 875 patients who could be ascertained as APA. Taking mortality as the competing risk, APA patients had a lower incidence of sepsis than their matched EH patients (hazard ratio (HR) 0.29; P < 0.001) after target treatments. Patients receiving adrenalectomy showed a benefit of decreasing the risk of sepsis (PA vs EH, HR 0.14, P = 0.001; APA vs EH, HR 0.16, P = 0.003), but mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist treatment may differ. Compared with matched control cohorts, patients with APA had a lower risk of all-cause mortality (PA, adjusted HR 0.84, P = 0.050; APA, adjusted HR 0.31, P < 0.001) after target treatments.ConclusionsOur study demonstrated that patients with PA/APA who underwent adrenalectomy could attenuate the risk of sepsis compared with their matched EH patients. We further found that APA patients with target treatments could decrease all-cause mortality compared with EH patients.
Highlights
The interaction between hyperaldosteronism and immune dysfunction has been reported and glucocorticoid co-secretion is frequently found in primary aldosteronism (PA)
In line with the previous findings, our results further indicate that patients with PA/aldosterone-producing adenoma (APA) could benefit from mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist (MRA) treatment or adrenalectomy in terms of long-term all-cause mortality
In light of recent concepts, chronic inflammatory disease could be attributed to sepsis [25, 26], and PA was regarded as a chronic inflammatory disease which may result from immune dysfunction
Summary
The interaction between hyperaldosteronism and immune dysfunction has been reported and glucocorticoid co-secretion is frequently found in primary aldosteronism (PA). The aforementioned conditions raise the possibility of the infection risk; clinical episodes of sepsis have not been reported in PA. Current studies have demonstrated that aldosterone oversecretion is related to fluid overload and hypokalemia and resulted in cardiovascular and renal damage [3, 4]. Hyperaldosteronism is associated with proinflammatory immune dysregulation, such as the release of proinflammatory cytokines [5] and generating oxidative stress [6]. Systemic aldosterone infusion leads to oxidative stress and inflammation in the rat myocardium [7]. Recent studies [9, 10]
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