Prevalence of Adrenal Incidentalomas Among Patients Undergoing Computed Tomography of the Chest for COVID-19

Abstract

Introduction. Adrenal incidentalomas (AI) are a current problem due to their potential hormonal activity. At the same time, their prevalence in the general population is not completely clear. Patients and Methods. We analyzed the chest CT scans of 307 patients treated as inpatients for COVID‑19 in order to identify patients with previously undiagnosed AI among them (study group). A control group was also selected from these 307 patients; it consisted of 27 patients without adrenal masses, similar in sex and age to the study group. Results. Out of 307 patients, 27 (8.7%) patients had AI detected for the first time. The majority of patients with AI were of older age group, predominantly women. The density of the detected masses was low, more than half of the AI were less than 2 cm in size. When comparing clinical, laboratory data and outcome of the study and control groups, no differences were found. Conclusion. The prevalence of AI in our study is higher compared to that in other sources due to targeted revision of the adrenal region on CT by radiology specialists. The absence of differences in the comparison of the two groups relieves clinical specialists of the necessity of additional adrenal examination of patients during inpatient treatment for extra-­adrenal disease, but in the posthospital period such examination may be important.

Keywords

• adrenal incidentaloma
• chest ct
• covid-19
• prevalence of adrenal masses
• hormonal activity