Imaging of the adrenal gland lesions.
With the steep increase in the use of cross-sectional imaging in recent years, the incidentally detected adrenal lesion, or "incidentaloma", has become an increasingly common diagnostic problem for the radiologist, and a need for an approach to classifying these lesions as benign, malignant or indeterminate with imaging has spurred an explosion of research. While most incidentalomas represent benign disease, typically an adenoma, the possibility of malignant involvement of the adrenal gland necessitates a reliance on imaging to inform management decisions. In this article, we review the literature on adrenal gland imaging, with particular emphasis on computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, and photon-emission tomography, and discuss how these findings relate to clinical practice. Emerging technologies, such as contrast-enhanced ultrasonography, dual-energy computed tomography, and magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging will also be briefly addressed.
MD, Assistant Professor, Department of Radiology, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Keith
K
Herr
MD, Habiliation, Associate Professor, Department of Internal Medicine - Radiology, Faculdade de Medicina de Ribeirão Preto da Universidade de São Paulo (FMRP-USP), Ribeirão Preto, SP, Brasil.
Valdair F
VF
Muglia
MD, Habilitation, Full Professor, Department of Surgery - Urology, Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil.
Walter José
WJ
Koff
MD, PhD, Associate Professor, Departments of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging and Urology, School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA.
Antonio Carlos
AC
Westphalen
Adenoma; Adrenal gland; Cancer; Diagnosis; Radiology