Steadily increasing aldosterone level over last year

[Guest guest]

Hi all,

Below is my husband's thumbprint details. He's been on Inspra since March 2011 and on his current increased dose of 100mg twice a day since August. Before March, he'd been on spiro but developed gynecomastia after being on it 4-5 months. Things are going well in that he feels well, no more leg cramps and good blood pressures until now. He follows a low sodium diet and has eaten basically the same way for the last 6 months. Bp has gone from 130/80 up to last month to 160/90 now. He is on no other BP meds.

Here's the issue that concerns me: when he was diagnosed with PA, his aldo level was 700 pmol/L (Canada, normal upright 100-840) but his renin was very low, hence the diagnosis considering low K, peeing 4xper night and ++drug resitent hypertension. With spiro and then Inspra and DASHing well most of the time, BP's were good but aldo level rose to 950. Then, 3 months later or so, it rose to 1100 and now, 4 more months down the road, it's 1500. It just keeps going up and I'm convinced an eczema-type skin flaking condition on his face that keeps worsening is related to this.

He's had several CT scans, MRI's and ultrasounds done over the last several years, most recently less than a year ago and they keep showing normal adrenals, normal size, no adenomas.

Does the rising aldo level mean that something will likely show up on MRI eventually? Does the rising aldo level suggest Tim should go for the AVS to figure out what's going on? How high can the aldo level get before it becomes downright worrisome?

Thanks all and Happy Holidays,

Husband Tim finally diagnosed with PA (no renin, high ARR and aldosterone, very low K for years) after 5 years on 6 different BP meds in October 2010.

pmol/L 100-860 upright

(Husband Tim finally diagnosed with PA (no renin, high ARR and aldosterone, very low K for years) after 5 years on 6 different BP meds in October 2010.)