Aim: To investigate the clinical and endocrinological characteristics of patients with adrenal incidentaloma (AI).
Materials and methods: This retrospective study enrolled 1941 AI patients hospitalized at the Department of Endocrinology, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, China, between January 1997 and December 2016. The patient gender, age at visits, imaging features, functional status, and histological results were analyzed.
Results: Of the 1941 patients, 984 (50.70%) were men. The median age was 52 years (interquartile range: 44-69 years). 140 cases had bilateral AI. Endocrine evaluation showed that 1411 (72.69%) patients had nonfunctional tumor, 152 (7.83%) had subclinical Cushing syndrome (SCS), and 82 (4.33%) had primary hyperaldosteronism. A total of 925 patients underwent operation for removal of 496 cortical adenomas (53.62%), 15 adrenal cortical carcinomas (1.62%), and 172 pheochromocytomas (18.59%). The bilateral group had a higher proportion of SCS (18.57% versus 7.10%, P < 0.001, P = 0.006). A mass size of 46 mm was of great value in distinguishing malignant tumors from the benign tumors, with sensitivity of 88.2% and specificity of 95.5%.
Conclusions: We reported the baseline demographic and clinical characteristics of patients with AI in a large series from a single center in China.