Pheochromocytoma and primary aldosteronism: diagnostic approaches.

Although adrenal-dependent hypertension is an uncommon form of hypertension, its diagnosis provides clinicians with a unique treatment opportunity, that is, to render a surgical cure or to achieve a dramatic response to pharmacologic therapy. The diagnosis of catecholamine-secreting tumors has evolved during the last 70 years to a straightforward stepwise algorithmic approach. Primary aldosteronism is now recognized as the most common form of secondary hypertension, and the screening methods for it are simple and reliable.