Developing a research database of primary aldosteronism: rationale and baseline characteristics

Background Management of primary aldosteronism (PA) has become a research hotspot in the field of endocrinology. To obtain reliable research evidence, it is necessary to establish a high-quality PA research database. Methods The establishment of PA research database involved two steps. Firstly, patients with confirmation of PA diagnosis between 1 Jan 2009 to 31 Aug 2019 at West China Hospital were identified and data were extracted. Secondly, patients with confirmatory testing for PA will be enrolled into a prospective cohort. Data will be prospectively collected based on the case report forms since 1 Sep 2019. We evaluated the quality of research database through assessment of quality of key variables. Results Totally, 862 patients diagnosed as PA were identified, of which 507 patients who had positive confirmatory testing for PA were included into the retrospective database. Among 862 patients diagnosed as PA, the mean systolic blood pressure (SBP) was 156.1 (21.7) mmHg, mean diastolic blood pressure (DBP) was 97.2 (14.5) mmHg. Among included patients, the mean serum potassium level was 2.85 (IQR, (2.47–3.36) mmol/L, and the mean plasma aldosterone concentration (PAC) was 28.1 (IQR, 20.0–40.4) ng/dL. The characteristics of patients with positive confirmatory testing for PA were similar. Validation of data extracting and linking showed the accuracy were 100%. Evaluation of missing data showed that the completeness of BMI (95.9%), SBP (99.4%) and DBP (99.4%) were high. Conclusion Through integrating retrospective and prospective cohort of PA, a research database of PA with high quality and comprehensive data can be established. We anticipate that the research database will provide a high level of feasibility for management of PA in China.