Adrenal masses are mainly detected unexpectedly by an imaging study performed for reasons unrelated to any suspect of adrenal diseases. Such masses are commonly defined as “adrenal incidentalomas” and represent a public health challenge because they are increasingly recognized in current medical practice. Management of adrenal incidentalomas is currently matter of debate. Although there is consensus on the need of a multidisciplinary expert team evaluation and surgical approach in patients with significant hormonal excess and/or radiological findings suspicious of malignancy demonstrated at the diagnosis or during follow-up, the inconsistency between official guidelines and the consequent diffuse uncertainty on management of small adrenal incidentalomas still represents a considerable problem in terms of clinical choices in real practice. The aim of the present work is to review the proposed strategies on how to manage patients with adrenal incidentalomas that are not candidates to immediate surgery. The recent European Society of Endocrinology/European Network for the Study of Adrenal Tumors guidelines have supported the view to avoid surveillance in patients with clear benign adrenal lesions <4 cm and/or without any hormonal secretion; however, newer prospective studies are needed to confirm safety of this strategy, in particular in younger patients.
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An adrenal incidentaloma is an adrenal mass found in an imaging study performed for other reasons unrelated to adrenal disease and often accompanied by obesity, diabetes, or hypertension. The prevalence and incidence of adrenal incidentaloma increase with age and are also expected to rise due to the rapid development of imaging technology and frequent imaging studies. The Korean Endocrine Society is promoting an appropriate practice guideline to meet the rising incidence of adrenal incidentaloma, in cooperation with the Korean Adrenal Gland and Endocrine Hypertension Study Group. In this paper, we discuss important core issues in managing the patients with adrenal incidentaloma. After evaluating core proposition, we propose the most critical 20 recommendations from the initially organized 47 recommendations by Delphi technique.
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In subclinical Cushing syndrome (SC), it is assumed that glucocorticoid production is insufficient to cause a clinically recognizable syndrome. Differences in hormonal levels or recovery time of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) axis after adrenalectomy between patients with overt Cushing syndrome (OC) and SC remain unknown.
Thirty-six patients (10 with OC and 26 with SC) with adrenal Cushing syndrome who underwent adrenalectomy from 2004 to 2014 were reviewed retrospectively. Patients were treated with glucocorticoid after adrenalectomy and were reevaluated every 1 to 6 months using a rapid adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) stimulation test.
Levels of basal 24-hour urine free cortisol (UFC), serum cortisol after an overnight dexamethasone suppression test (DST), and serum cortisol and 24-hour UFC after low-dose DST and high-dose DST were all significantly lower in patients with SC compared with OC. Basal ACTH levels showed significantly higher in patients with SC compared with OC. The probability of recovering adrenal function during follow-up differed significantly between patients with OC and SC (
The HPA axis recovery time after adrenalectomy in patients with SC is rapid and is dependent on the degree of cortisol excess. More precise definition of SC is necessary to achieve a better management of patients and to avoid the risk of under- or over-treatment of SC patients.
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We aimed to assess the usefulness of pre-contrast Hounsfield unit (HU) and mass size on computed tomography to differentiate adrenal mass found incidentally in oncologic patients.
From 2000 to 2012, 131 oncologic patients with adrenal incidentaloma were reviewed retrospectively. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were applied to determine the optimal cut-off value of the mean HU and size for detecting adrenal metastasis.
The median age was 18 years, and 80 patients were male. The initial mass size was 18 mm, and 71 (54.2%) of these were on the left side. A bilateral adrenal mass was found in 11 patients (8.4%). Biochemically functional masses were observed in 9.2% of patients. Thirty-six out of 119 patients with nonfunctional masses underwent adrenalectomy, which revealed metastasis in 13. The primary cancers were lung cancer (
ROC curve results suggest that pre-contrast HU >20 can be used as a diagnostic reference to suggest metastasis in oncologic patients with adrenal masses.
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Current guidelines for follow-up of adrenal incidentalomas are extensive and hampered by lack of follow-up studies. We tested the hypothesis that small lipid-rich adrenal incidentalomas, initially characterized by tumor size <40 mm and <10 Hounsfield units (HUs) on unenhanced computed tomography (CT) may not demonstrate excessive growth/hormonal hypersecretion on follow-up.
Sixty-nine incidentalomas in 56 patients were restudied with unenhanced CT and screening for hypercortisolism (dexamethasone suppression test [DST], plasma adrenocorticotropic hormone) and pheochromocytoma (24-hour urinary metanephrines and normetanephrines) 5 years later. Primary hyperaldosteronism was excluded at base-line.
Tumor (
None of the patients developed clinically relevant tumor growth or new subclinical hypercortisolism. Biochemical screening for pheochromocytoma in incidentalomas demonstrating <10 HU on unenhanced CT is not needed. For such incidentalomas <40 mm, it seems sufficient to perform control CT and screen for hypercortisolism after 5 years.
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The aim of this study was to examine the clinical characteristics of adrenal incidentalomas discovered by computed tomography (CT) and to investigate metabolic features of subclinical Cushing's syndrome (SCS) in patients with adrenal incidentalomas in a tertiary hospital in Korea.
This retrospective study examined the clinical aspects of 268 patients with adrenal incidentalomas discovered by CT at Soonchunhyang University Bucheon Hospital. Clinical data and endocrine function of the patients as well as histological findings were obtained from medical records, while anatomic characteristics were analyzed by reviewing imaging studies. Hormonal tests for pheochromocytoma, Cushing's syndrome, and aldosterone-secreting adenoma were performed.
Most (
Functioning tumors, especially those with subclinical cortisol excess, are commonly found in patients with adrenal incidentalomas, although malignancy is rare. In addition, patients with SCS in adrenal incidentalomas have adverse metabolic and cardiovascular profiles.
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Adrenal incidentalomas are adrenal masses serendipitously detected during an imaging study performed for reasons unrelated to suspicion of adrenal disease. The incidence of adrenal incidentalomas has increased because of the widespread use of various imaging modalities. In oncology patients with adrenal incidentalomas, the characterization of the adrenal masses is challenging because nearly 50% of incidental adrenal masses are metastatic lesions that need special medical attention. Although unenhanced computed tomography (CT) densitometry, chemical shift magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), delayed contrast-enhanced CT and CT histogram analysis have been used as sensitive and specific modalities for differentiating benign from malignant adrenal masses, F-18 fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose positron emission tomography (F-18 FDG PET)/CT is a highly accurate imaging modality compared to CT or MRI, especially when these two imaging modalities are combined. In addition, a semiquantitative analysis using standardized uptake value ratio further improves the diagnostic accuracy of F-18 FDG PET/CT in differentiating benign from malignant adrenal masses. Thus, F-18 FDG PET/CT is very helpful for determining the best therapeutic management, especially for assessing the need for surgery.
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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.
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.
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 aldosterone-producing 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%).
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.
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