[Characterization of adrenal incidentaloma discovered with tomography. General review].
The detection of an incidentaloma at abdominal Computed Tomography (CT), except CT features that permit a specific diagnosis (hemorrhage, myelolipoma or cyst), become a problem to differentiate adenomas from "non adenomas" (primary or secondary malignancy) incidentalomas. A density of ten Hounsfield units or less with a nonenhanced CT is a feature of benign incidentaloma (essentially lipid-rich adrenal adenomas). There are two limitations of this characterization: incidentalomas initially detected at enhanced CT and lipid-poor adrenal adenomas. The relative enhancement washout on enhanced CT, by using a threshold of 50% washout, permit then to characterized as adenomas or "non adenomas" incidentalomas on a 10-minute-delayed enhanced CT. Limitations of this characterization are only for benign pheochromocytomas and atypical adrenal cortical carcinomas.
Gomez
M A
MA
Département de radiologie, hôpital Trousseau, centre hospitalier universitaire Tours, 37044 Tours, France. magomez@caramail.com
Besson
M
M
Roger
R
R
Scotto
B
B
Alison
D
D
D000310:Adrenal Gland Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D006801:Humans; D033162:Incidental Findings; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed