Hormonal and metabolic evaluation of adrenal incidentalomas

The biochemical and hormonal data in patients with adrenal incidentalomas were evaluated to compare the differences between adrenal adenomas and other benign lesions and to find the relationship between metabolic parameters and adrenal hormones. Ninety two patients (29men, age 20-90 years) with incidentally discovered unilateral or bilateral adrenal masses detected on CT were included in this study for the reasons others than adrenal pathology. Glycemia, cholesterolemia, triglyceridemia, hormonal evaluation including plasma ACTH, plasma aldosterone, plasma renin acitivity, overnight dexametasone test, ACTH test, free plasma metanephrines, urinary catecholamines were determined. In the group of patients with adrenal masses the prevalence of arterial hypertension was three fold higher, the prevalence of DM was approximately five fold higher and the prevalence of the overweight and obesity two fold higher than is reported in the general population. The most frequent adrenal masses were nonfunctional masses, the occurence of functional lesions was as follows: steroid enzymopathies (an exaggerated response of 17-OHP indicating a possible 21-hydroxylase deficiency), subclinical Cushing syndrome, primary aldosteronism and pheochromocytoma (5%, 2%, 2% and 1% respectively). There were no significant differences in evaluated data between patients with adenomas and hyperplasia and also no significant difference in evaluated data between lesions smaller than 3 cm and lesions greater than 3 cm. We did not find any correlations between plasma cortisol and lipid values. In this study we confirmed a higher prevalence of symptoms characteristic for different metabolic syndromes in these patients with adrenal incidentalomas, which indicate systematic screening for the metabolic syndrome including evaluation of the insuline resistance in this patients.