Evaluation of the Clinical and Laboratory Characteristics of Patients with Adrenal Gland Masses: A Retrospective Study

Abstract

Background and Objectives: Adrenal gland is a complex anatomical site, that benign and malignant masses, and hemorrhage may happened there. It is important to diagnose tumors as incidental and non-incidental based on clinical symptoms and tumor type differences. In this study we aimed to evaluate the clinical and laboratory characteristics of adrenal masses of patients referred to Mekran Medical College Hospital Turbat of Tehran during the last 10 years. Methods: In this retrospective cross-sectional study, we evaluated the medical records of all patients with adrenal masses of patients, who had been presented to the endocrinology clinic of Mekran Medical College Hospital Turbat during 2012- 2022. Patients’ information including age, gender, laboratory (ACTH, DHEAS, PRA and aldosterone) and imaging findings, and clinical symptoms were extracted from the documents. SPSS software was used for statistical analysis. Results: Three hundred fifty-one patients (56.1% male and 43.9% female, average age 43.42±14.46 years) were examined. 127 cases (36.2%) were from the incidentaloma group (random discovery) and 224 cases (63.8%) were from the non-incidentaloma group (discovered during the examination of adrenal related symptoms). The most common symptoms in the non-incidentaloma group were: muscle weakness (37 patients, 10.5%), blood pressure (34 patients, 9.7%) and weight gain (30 patients, 8.5%). The final diagnoses were not significantly different between the two groups and the most common diagnosis in both groups were adenomas (>90%). The frequency of functional and non-functional adenomas was significantly different between the incidentaloma and non-incidentaloma groups (P = 0.003). The most common functional adenoma is Cushing's. Tumor size, Hunsfield index and age showed a significant difference between the incidentaloma and non-incidentaloma groups (P < 0.05). Conclusion: Most of the patients identified in this study were diagnosed based on their clinical symptoms. On the other hand, clinical symptoms in patients differed based on the type of disease, which can help in better diagnosis and management of patients.