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Intestinal infections were the third most common type of illness in the Mexican population, with more than 2.5 million estimated cases in 2020, according to information from Statista.
According to the INSP, one in four Mexicans suffers from arterial hypertension, in men the prevalence is 24.9% and in women 26.1%.
A ten-minute computed tomography (CT) scan helps detect tiny nodules in a hormone gland and cure high blood pressure by removing it. The research, led by doctors from Queen Mary University of London and Barts Hospital and Cambridge University Hospital, was published in Nature Medicine.
The study included 128 participants whose hypertension, or high blood pressure, was caused by a steroid hormone, aldosterone. The new scan found that in two-thirds of patients with hypertension, aldosterone secretion comes from a benign nodule in one of the adrenal glands, which can be safely removed.
The scanner uses a very short-acting dose of methomidate, a reactive dye that binds only to the aldosterone-producing nodule. These aldosterone-producing nodules are very small and easily missed on a normal CT scan, explains Professor Morris Brown, co-author of the study and professor of endocrine hypertension at the Queen Mary University of London.
“When they glow for a few minutes after our injection, they reveal themselves to be the obvious cause of high blood pressure, which can then often be cured. Until now, 99% are never diagnosed due to the difficulty and lack of availability of tests. Hopefully this is about to change,” she added.
Aldosterone helps regulate blood pressure by controlling the levels of sodium and potassium in the blood. The increase in sodium in the bloodstream causes water retention, and this increases blood volume and blood pressure.
Aldosteronism is the most frequent cause of hypertension, with 5-14% of cases. This disease is also the cause of 20-25% of cases of hypertension resistant to treatment.
The study authors say that, until now, the catheter test was unable to predict which patients were completely cured of hypertension by surgical removal of the gland.
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