Research progress of aldosterone detection methods and clinical applications

Aldosterone is a steroid hormone that acts on the kidneys to maintain the balance of sodium and water. Primary hyperaldosteronism (PA) is the most common disease that causes secretory hypertension. PA is often unrecognized and is associated with a high death rate. The aldosterone/rein rate (ARR) and detection of serum or urinary aldosterone are the most effective method to screen and identify PA. In healthy individuals, aldosterone concentration is present in low quantities in serum and there are numerous compounds that can potentially interfere with analysis making aldosterone a technically challenging analyte quantifying method. At present, the method of aldosterone detection includes radioimmunoassay, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, chemiluminescence method and mass spectrometry. These methods have their own advantages and disadvantages, the ARR ratios of different detection methods for the diagnosis of PA are not completely consistent. In this paper, the detection methods and clinical applications of aldosterone are reviewed. Key words: Aldosterone; Radioimmunoassay; Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay; Mass spectrometry