Searchable abstracts of presentations at key conferences in endocrinology
Endocrine Abstracts (2012) 29 P81

ICEECE2012 Poster Presentations Adrenal cortex (113 abstracts)

The routine application of the current clinical recommendations for adrenal incidentalomas the management is highly inefficient

M. Villaplana , D. Subías , E. Berlanga , A. Cabo , R. Martos & M. Rigla


Corporació Sanitària i Universitària Parc Taulí, SABADELL, Spain.


Introduction: The improvement in imaging techniques has increased the number of incidentally discovered adrenal lesions. Current clinical recommendations are based on the NIH consensus statement (2002) and include: CT at 6,12 and 24 months plus annual hormone evaluation for 4 years.

The aim of this study was to describe the results of the application of the current guidelines in a cohort of consecutive patients whose initial diagnosis was non-functioning adrenal adenoma

Patients and methods: We reviewed the clinical records of the patients who followed the following inclusion criteria: incidental discovered adrenal mass; no extra-adrenal malignancy; no radiological suspicion of malignancy (apart from size). Annual hormone evaluation consisted in: 1 mg DXT, urine metanephrines and catecholamines, K and Renin/Aldo. Regular CT studies were also performed.

Results: Ninty-nine patients were included (54.5% females, mean age 59.8±11.3 years, BMI 28.8±4.9 kg/m2). Hypertension was present in 49.5% of the patients, dyslipidemia in 41.4%, type 2 DM in 25.3%.

Two patients underwent surgery because of sizeand in both cases the final diagnosis was cortical adenoma. Mean initial size was 21.6±9.5 mm and 14.4% of the patients had bilateral lesions. The median follow-up was 45.5 months.

At the baseline evaluation, hormonally active adenomas were diagnosed in 5 patients (2 hypercortisolism, 3 hyperaldosteronism). All the patients with an initial negative evaluation remained without alterations in the folowing hormonal tests. No significant increase in size (1.7±5.2 mm) was observed through the follow-up period.

Conclusion: The routine application of the current guidelines for the follow-up of adrenal incidentalomas whose initial diagnosis corresponds to non-functioning adenoma does not seem justified.

Declaration of interest: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest that could be perceived as prejudicing the impartiality of the research project.

Funding: This research did not receive any specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sector.

Volume 29

15th International & 14th European Congress of Endocrinology

European Society of Endocrinology 

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