Endocrine Abstracts

Incidentalomas (AI) are clinically inapparent adrenal masses. Patients present hormone excess or mass effect, but part of them is clinically silent. They are discovered inadvertently in the course of diagnostic testing or treatment for other clinical conditions. The aim of the study was to investigate the clinical value of tumor size and hormonal status of elderly patients with adrenal incidentaloma (AI).

Subjects and Methods: Forty-four elderly with AI was diagnosed AI discovered by magnetic resonance (MR). The demographics of patients, imaging features, functional status and histological results were evaluated, retrospectively.

Results: Thirty-two (72.7%) of the patients were females and 12 (27.7%) of them were males. Mean age of the patients was 69.1±13.0 years. 5 (11.3%) of the patients’ age were ≥75 years. Mean volumes of AI found to be 3.12±0.7 cm. In 6 (50.0%) of the elderly male with AI, sizes of tumor found to be ≥3.5 cm and were operated. Histological findings in operated male were myelolipoma (two male patients) and metastatic epidermoid cancer originating from lung (two male patients). Mean levels of Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEAS), cortisol, vanil mandelic acid (VMA), aldosteron, 17-hydroxyprogesterone (17-OHP) were found to be 289.3±89.2 (ng/ml); 15.3±3.56 (μg/dl); 4.0±1.1 (mg/24 h); 121.1±21.3 (pg/mL); 1.0±0.3 (ng/ml) respectively.

Conclusion: The frequency of AI in the female elderly was higher than thats of male elderly. However, mean levels of tumor size in male elderly than thats of female elderly. This is a preliminary report, future studies are needed.