Clinical Characteristics for 132 Patients with Adrenal Incidentaloma

Abstract

Background:Adrenal incidentaloma is an adrenal neoplasm frequently encountered in clinical practice for which detection rates have recently increased. We describe here the clinical characteristics of adrenal incidentalomas. Methods: A retrospective study was performed examining the age, sex, location, size, function, and the histological findings for 348 patients with an adrenal mass discovered incidentally on computed tomography (CT) undertaken for health examination or nonadrenal disease from August 2005 to May 2012. Results: Patients consisted of 156 males (44.8%) and 192 females (55.2%), aged between 20 and 86. Adrenal masses were most commonly found in patients in their sixth decade (32.5%). Regarding the location of the masses, 62.0% were found in the left adrenal gland, 30.2% were found in the right, and 7.8% were found bilaterally. Of all of the masses analyzed, 87.1% were 1 to 4 cm in size, and an adenoma-like appearance was the most common finding (75.3%) seen on CT scans. Hormonal analysis showed that 82.2% of the masses were nonfunctioning, 6.0% were diagnosed as subclinical Cushing's syndrome, 4.6% were aldosteroneproducing adenomas, and 7.2% were pheochromocytomas. Adrenalectomy was performed in a total of 69 patients having adenoma (50.7%), pheochromocytoma (24.6%), and carcinoma (4.3%). Conclusion:The characteristics of benign, malignant, nonfunctional, and functional adrenal masses that were incidentally found at our hospital were similar to those presented in other studies.

Clinical Characteristics for 348 Patients with Adrenal Incidentaloma

“…Among the functional tumors, pheochromocytomas were the most frequently observed in our review, followed by subclinical Cushing's syndrome (6.0%), and aldosterone secreting adenoma (4.6%), closely resembling the results of another study done in Korea [25]. A study from a different country, however, reported differing results, that subclinical Cushing's syndrome was found at the highest incidence among functional masses [17].…”

Clinical characteristics and follow-up of Korean patients with adrenal incidentalomas

“…In a previous Korean study, pheochromocytoma was seen at a much higher incidence, of up to 20%, of adrenal incidentalomas [13]. However, a separate Korean study and our data suggest that the incidence of pheochromocytoma was much lower, similar to that seen in Western data [11]. …”

Clinical Guidelines for the Management of Adrenal Incidentaloma

“…Similar results were found in studies of Korean patients with adrenal incidentaloma. The incidence of functional adrenal tumors was reported to be 41.3% in Kim's study of 80 patients [ 10 ], but it was 13.6% to 18.7% in other studies [ 11 12 13 14 ]. There are several types of functional tumors: pheochromocytomas, with an average incidence of 6.2% (range, 2.1% to 20.0%); Cushing's syndrome (including symptom-free), with an average of 8.1% (range, 3.0% to 11.3%); and hyperaldosteronism, with an average of 3.9% (range, 1.5% to 10.0%).…”