Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Due to improvements in diagnosis capabilities, there has been a recent increase in adrenal tumors, that are incidentally discovered in patients, who underwent examination by sonography (S), computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) The aim of this study was to define the usefulness of contrast-enhanced three-dimensional sonography in the diagnosis of nonfunctioning adrenal incidentalomas.

Patients and methods

Sixty-one patients with nonfunctioning adrenal adenomas, 51 women and 10 men, aged 42–78 years (61±8) were subjected to analysis. All were earlier diagnosed by sonography and CT or MRI. All received detailed laboratory testing including hormones profile. Examination with ultrasonography were performed by a single physisians throughout the study. The patients were examined by Acuson Antares (Siemens) with convex transducer of 2.5 MHz, including Duplex, Doppler and three-dimensional sonography followed by a three-dimensional sonography with the Sonovue contrast agent. Shape, structure, size and vascularization of adrenals were assessed according to the RECIST protocol.

Results: After administration of contrast, increase of the size, without the visualization of vascularization within the same tumor, was found in ~ 90% of adrenal incidentalomas.

Conclusions: Contrast-enhanced three-dimensional sonography may be a useful method in the diagnosis of adrenal incidentalomas. It may be a valuable procedure in detecting and follow up of the nonfunctioning adrenal tumors.

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.