Rats survive indefinitely on extra salt alone, but in dogs and most humans, the amount of supplementary salt needed is so large that it is almost impossible to prevent eventual collapse and death unless mineralocorticoid treatment is also instituted. Diagnosis
Patients with a suspected diagnosis of hypoaldosteronism are often screened with simple blood tests. Potassium levels, plasma aldosterone concentration and plasma renin activity are the three most useful in the first instance. Low aldosterone levels in the presence of high renin activity, often with low sodium, high potassium, is associated with primary hypoaldosteronism. Secondary hypoaldersteronism may be suspected if renin activity is low with low aldosterone concentrations. The plasma aldosterone-to-renin ratio is calculated to determine if levels are sufficiently deranged to consider a diagnosis of hypoaldosteronism.If screening test is suggestive, a more definitive diagnosis is made by performing a saline suppression test, ambulatory salt loading test, or fludrocortisone suppression test. Imaging to detect an Adrenocortical adenoma may also be considered. Treatment
Aldosterone deficiency should be treated with a mineralocorticoid (such as fludrocortisone), as well as possibly a glucocorticoid for cortisol deficiency if present. Hyporeninemic hypoaldosteronism is amenable to fludrocortisone treatment, but the accompanying hypertension and edema can prove a problem in these patients, so often a diuretic (such as the thiazide diuretic, bendrofluazide, or a loop diuretic, such as furosemide) is used to control the hyperkalemia. See also
Addisons disease
Adrenal gland
Hyperaldosteronism
Pseudohypoaldosteronism

References


== External links ==
A full taxidermy of a two-headed calf can be seen advertising ice cream for College of the Ozarks in Branson, Missouri, where it was delivered by the students. Two full body taxidermies of two-headed calves can be seen at the Huron County Museum in Goderich, Ontario. A full taxidermy of a two-headed calf is on display at the Miami County Museum in Peru, Indiana
A full body taxidermy of a two-headed calf is on display at the Finnish Museum of Natural History in Helsinki
A taxidermy of a two-headed calf can be found in St. Petersburg, FL in the U.S. at the St. Petersburg Museum of History. A two-headed calf is displayed at the Bay Beach Wildlife Sanctuary in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Woolly Mammoth Antiques & Oddities shop in Chicagos Andersonville neighborhood displays a two-headed calf named Brussels Sprouts, originally from Belgium. Pigs
The Deformed Animals Museum of Llubí, Spain, preserves a two-headed pig. A preserved two headed piglet can be seen at the Museum of Witchcraft, Boscastle, Cornwall, England. A two-headed piglet can be found at the Old State House in Hartford, Connecticut. In 1998, Rudy, a two-headed pig, was born in Iowa. A two-headed piglet appeared on one episode of Oddities. A two-headed piglet was a display at the Stearns County Museum in St. Cloud, Minnesota, until the mid-1970s, but cannot be confirmed; it may have been creative taxidermy. Goats and sheep
In 1577, a lamb with 3 heads was born in Blandy, France, and illustrated in Ambroise Pares Of Monsters and Prodigies.