Recent 2025 American Heart Association (AHA) guidelines recommend lower blood pressure targets for individuals with increased cardiovascular risk. Importantly, they recommend primary aldosteronism screening for all patients with resistant hypertension and recommend screening to be considered in those with Stage 2 hypertension. These updates reflect a growing recognition of the role of aldosterone dysregulation in disease pathophysiology and highlight the need for timely and effective hypertension management. In addition to novel treatment options, these updated recommendations present opportunities to gain a deep understanding of contemporary clinical practice, the prevalence of aldosterone dysregulation, and how these insights may drive initiatives for individualized and population level care. Effective hypertension management requires prioritizing early identification and establishing efficient treatment protocols.
The overall REFOCUS-HTN Project consists of two parts:
- REFOCUS-HTN: Retrospective data analysis.
- SCALED (Study to Clinically Describe Aldosterone Dysregulation): Observational sub-study (SCALED) with primary data collection to supplement REFOCUS-HTN data.
The SCALED sub-study will enroll a subset of ~500 participants from the REFOCUS-HTN cohort for prospective data collection. Individuals with hypertension will be invited to participate in SCALED and will be provided informed consent. The clinical examination (Month 0) will consist of blood pressure and body composition measurements and blood and urine specimen collection. Blood and urine specimens collected will be collected on follow-up Months 2 and 6.
