Endocrine Abstracts

Importance: It is not known if non-functional adrenal tumors (NFATs) are associated with dementia.

Objective: To analyze incidence and prevalence of dementia in individuals with NFAT.

Design, setting and participants: A national retrospective register-based study in patients with NFAT diagnosed in Sweden 2005–2019 and controls without adrenal tumors followed until death or end of 2019 was conducted. Individuals with a diagnosis of adrenal hormonal excess or previous malignancy were excluded.

Exposures: NFAT diagnosis.

Main outcomes and measures: Main study outcomes were prevalence and incidence of dementia, after adjustment for sex, age and comorbidities. Secondary outcomes were Alzheimer’s and vascular dementia.

Results: Among 20390 cases, 12 120 (59.4%) were women, and the median (IQR) age was 66 (57; 73) years. Among 125 392 controls, 69 994 (55.8%) were women, and the median (IQR) age was 66 (57; 73) years. Previous dementia was less common in patients diagnosed with NFAT compared to controls (odds ratio (OR) 0.59, 95% CI 0.50–0.69, adjusted OR 0.47, 95% CI 0.56). We obtained similar results för Alzheimer’s dementia (odds ratio (OR) 0.48, 95% CI 0.38–0.62 adjusted OR 0.44, 95% CI 0.34–0.57). Vascular dementia were also less common in patients with NFAT compared to controls (odds ratio (OR) 0.71, 95% CI 0.52–0.94, adjusted OR 0.48, 95% CI 0.35–0.64). During the follow-up period (5.4years (IQR 2.5–8.8)) dementia incidence was similar in patients with NFAT and controls (hazard ratio (HR) 1.06, 95% CI 0.97–1.15, adjusted HR 1.06). For Alzheimer’s and vascular dementia the incidences were also similar between patients with NFAT and controls (HR 0.86, 95% CI 0.73–1. 00, adjusted HR 0.94, 95% CI 0.8–1.1 and HR 1.29, 95% CI 1.08–1.53, adjusted HR 1.13 (95%CI 0.95–1.35)).

Conclusions and relevance: NFAT was not associated with increased risk for all-cause dementia, Alzheimer’s or vascular dementia.