Department of Diabetes and Endocrinology, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland Medical School, Beaumont Hospital, Dublin 9, Ireland.
Endocrine. 2011 Aug;40(1):80-3. doi: 10.1007/s12020-011-9445-6. Epub 2011 Mar 10.
The prevalence of adrenal incidentaloma (AI) on computed tomography (CT) in the general population has been reported to be as high as 4.2%. However, many of the previous studies in this field utilised a prospective approach with analysis of CT scans performed by one or more radiologists with a specialist interest in adrenal tumours and a specific focus on identifying the presence of an adrenal mass. A typical radiology department, with a focus on the patient's presenting complaint as opposed to the adrenal gland, may not be expected to diagnose as many adrenal incidentalomas as would be identified in a dedicated research protocol. We hypothesised that the number of AI reported in routine clinical practice is significantly lower than the published figures would suggest. We retrospectively reviewed the reports of all CT thorax and abdomen scans performed in our hospital over a 2 year period. 3,099 patients underwent imaging, with 3,705 scans performed. The median age was 63 years (range 18-98). Thirty-seven true AI were diagnosed during the time period studied. Twenty-two were diagnosed by CT abdomen (22/2,227) and 12 by CT thorax (12/1,478), a prevalence of 0.98 and 0.81% with CT abdomen and thorax, respectively, for AI in routine clinical practice.
在一般人群中，计算机断层扫描（CT）检测到的肾上腺意外瘤（AI）的患病率高达 4.2%。然而，该领域的许多先前研究采用了前瞻性方法，由一名或多名对肾上腺肿瘤有专业兴趣的放射科医生分析 CT 扫描，并专门关注识别是否存在肾上腺肿块。与专注于患者主诉而非肾上腺的典型放射科不同，在专门的研究方案中可能会诊断出比在常规临床实践中更多的 AI。我们假设在常规临床实践中报告的 AI 数量明显低于已发表的数字。我们回顾性地审查了我们医院在 2 年期间进行的所有 CT 胸部和腹部扫描的报告。3099 名患者进行了影像学检查，共进行了 3705 次扫描。中位年龄为 63 岁（范围 18-98 岁）。在研究期间诊断出 37 例真正的 AI。其中 22 例通过 CT 腹部（22/2227）和 12 例通过 CT 胸部（12/1478）诊断，AI 在 CT 腹部和 CT 胸部的患病率分别为 0.98%和 0.81%。
