Loading...
“A 2-cm mass is noted incidentally in the right adrenal gland.” All too often, such findings appear on abdominal computed tomography scan reports. A retrospective analysis from Brown University contributes to our understanding of these so-called adrenal “incidentalomas.”
Radiologists identified 3307 patients with adrenal masses on 128,000 CT scans performed during a 4-year period. Patients who had known cancer or clinically suspected hormonally functioning lesions, patients whose lesions had low attenuation indicating benignity (<10 Hounsfield units), and patients whose lesions had worrisome features (e.g., heterogeneity or irregularity) were excluded. The remaining 290 patients had 321 “indeterminate” adrenal masses (mean size, 2.1 cm; rang…