Despite being widely recognized as the most common form of secondary hypertension, among the general hypertensive population the true prevalence of primary aldosteronism (PA) and its main subtypes, aldosterone-producing adenoma (APA) and bilateral adrenal hyperplasia (BAH), remains a matter of debate. This study sought to determine the prevalence and clinical phenotype of PA in a large cohort of unselected patients with hypertension, consecutively referred to our hypertension unit, by 19 general practitioners from Torino, Italy. Our results demonstrated that PA is a frequent cause of secondary hypertension, even in the general population of patients with hypertension, and indicates that most of these patients should be screened for PA.
