J Korean Radiol Soc.  1982 Dec;18(4):828-838. 10.3348/jkrs.1982.18.4.828.

CT diagnosis of adrenal disease

• Park YH
• Lee DH
• Chang KH
• Park JH
• Han MC
• Min HK
• Yang CK

• KMID: 2463253
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.3348/jkrs.1982.18.4.828

Abstract

The CT findings of the adrenal disease in a total of 52 patients were analysed. 39 patients of them wereverified at operation and composed of 22 patients of Cushing's syndrome, 11 patients of pheochromocytoma, 6patients of aldosteronism. The remainder was finally diagnosed on the basis of compelling clinical and biochemical evidence. Aldosteronoma is very small (all under 3cm), round or oval mass with homogeneous low density, but pheochromocytoma is relatively large mass (all beyond 3cm) with heterogeneous or isodense comparing to pancreaticdensity. Size and density of Cushing's adenoma has transitional character between aldosteronoma andpheochromocytoma. Overall diagnostic accuracy, sensitivity and specificity of CT in adrenal tumor/adrenal diseaseare 96.2%/87%. 96.4%/78.9% and 95.7%/97.7% respectively. The relative low sensitivity of adrenal disease(78.9%) isdue to inclusion of normal sized bilateral hyperplasia. Of 28 adrenal tumors, 27 were correctly diagnosed by CT,and there were one false positive and one false negative diagnosis. CT is a highly accurate non-invasive method inlocalization of adrenal tumors and differentiation of the tumors from hyperplasia.

MeSH Terms

Adenoma
Cushing Syndrome
Diagnosis*
Humans
Hyperaldosteronism
Hyperplasia
Methods
Pheochromocytoma
Sensitivity and Specificity