Equipping hospitals for primary aldosteronism patients

4 May 2022

By Rob Clancy, staff writer

After identifying primary aldosteronism (PA) as a significant cause of high blood pressure, Dr Jun Yang is leading a multi-state push to have hospitals equipped to diagnose and treat patients.

Dr Jun Yang from Hudson Institute is pushing for hospitals to be equipped to find the cause of high blood pressure Primary Aldosteronism. — *Dr Jun Yang*

As head of the Endocrine Hypertension Group at Hudson Institute and Consultant Endocrinologist at Monash Health, Dr Jun Yang heads a project designed to prepare major hospitals for an expected influx of primary aldosteronism patients.

The project entitled EQUIPPA aims to literally equip tertiary care for the optimal diagnosis of primary aldosteronism, and thanks to funding from the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) in the recent federal budget, it’s about to be rolled out in four states over the next three years.

The project was awarded $2,993,294 to be distributed through centres in Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia.

High blood pressure cause could be primary aldosteronism

It comes on the back of the recent study, led by PhD student Dr Renata Libianto, in which GPs tested patients recently diagnosed with high blood pressure (hypertension) for primary aldosteronism and found that its prevalence was massively larger than previously thought.

It is also a tribute to Professor Michael Stowasser from the University of Queensland, whose research over the past three decades highlighted primary aldosteronism as an important secondary cause of high blood pressure in Australia.

“Before our study, these GPs reported less than one in every thousand of their patients having primary aldosteronism, but once they started testing for it, the figure jumped to 14 per cent,” Dr Yang said.

She said it is important to ensure the health system is set up to manage these cases appropriately.

Preparing hospitals for primary aldosteronism

VIEW VIDEO | Dr Jun Yang from Hudson Institute, as she provides new hope for Australians suffering from drug resistant high blood pressure.

“If we’re identifying more cases of primary aldosteronism, we need our hospitals and pathology labs equipped to properly diagnose it in a timely, efficient and cost-effective way.”

“We want to ensure the health system can cope with newly-identified demands of diagnosing and treating primary aldosteronism as a major cause of high blood pressure,” she said

Among the institutions participating in the EQUIPPA project are Hudson Institute, Monash Health, Monash University, University of NSW, University of Queensland and University of Western Australia. The team encompasses endocrinologists, hypertension specialists, nephrologists, chemical pathologists, radiologists, health economists and Implementation scientists.