Wearable monitor reveals nighttime hormone surges behind hypertension
A wearable device that tracks hormones continuously has uncovered bursts of aldosterone production during sleep in people with primary aldosteronism. These nighttime surges are missed by standard blood tests, which are usually done during the day. The discovery could lead to more accurate diagnosis of this common but often overlooked cause of high blood pressure.
The study tracked 60 participants across four European cities over a full 24-hour cycle, sampling hormone levels every 20 minutes through a waist-worn device roughly the size of a mobile phone. Because the wearable collects samples from the skin, patients slept at home normally rather than in clinical settings, allowing researchers to capture aldosterone activity that daytime blood draws routinely overlook.
The technology, called U-RHYTHM, originated at the University of Bristol and was licensed to the spinout company Dynamic Therapeutics in 2023. Published in Science Translational Medicine, the findings suggest that continuous monitoring could reveal hormonal abnormalities in realistic living conditions, potentially reshaping how clinicians approach hypertension diagnosis.
This discovery could meaningfully affect the estimated one in five hypertension patients whose condition stems from primary aldosteronism yet goes undiagnosed. Earlier detection may reduce preventable heart attacks, strokes, and diabetes complications in a large population. Widespread adoption of wearable hormone monitoring could also shift diagnostic practice from single blood draws toward longer observation periods, though cost, accessibility, and clinical validation remain practical considerations before such tools reach routine care.