Determination of aldosterone by sephadex LH-20 chromatography and radioimmunoassay

A method for the determination of urinary aldosterone has been developed which appears to be applicable for the clinical laboratory. Ten ml of urine were used for analysis. The purification of aldosterone consisted of hydrolysis at pH 1.0; CH 2Cl 2 extraction and column chromatography on Sephadex LH-20. Recovery of added 4- 14C-D-aldosterone was 44.7 + 7.1 (2 SD) % for 60 experiments. The extraction was followed by a rapid radioimmunoassay analysis of aldosterone. The sensitivity of the overall assay was 1.6 μg aldosterone, the accuracy 92.0 ±3.4 %. The coefficient of variation was within one assay 14 % for a given sample (n = 19) and 20 % for multiple assays. Excretion of aldosterone as determined in 17 healthy individuals on an uncontrolled diet was 9.5 ± 3.6 (SD) μg per 24 hours. Patients suffering from renal arterial stenosis or from essential hypertension presented an increase of aldosterone excretion upon sodium restriction. An increased excretion of aldosterone without any response to reduced sodium uptake was found in patients with primary aldosteronism.