Conn's adenoma Credit: Morris Brown
The test could be especially important for older patients - we often see growths in the adrenal glands during a routine CT scan." - —Morris Brown, Professor of Clinical Pharmacology at the University of Cambridge - A new test developed by researchers at the University of Cambridge could help doctors diagnose thousands of people with the most common curable cause of high blood pressure (hypertension). Research funded by the British Heart Foundation (BHF) and National Institute of Health Research (NIHR), showed a high-tech PET-CT scan could detect Conn's syndrome, which causes up to five per cent of hypertension cases. Around 12 million people in the UK are diagnosed with hypertension, a condition which greatly increases the risk of having a heart attack or stroke. For most people with hypertension there is no single underlying cause, but in a small minority there is a specific condition that causes blood pressure to rise. One of these conditions is called Conn's syndrome - the most common curable cause of high blood pressure. Conn's syndrome is difficult to diagnose but an accurate diagnosis often leads to successful treatment.
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