title: Adrenal Mass in Patients who Underwent Abdominal Computed Tomography Examination.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Adrenal masses are usually discovered incidentally (IAM) during abdominal computed tomography (CT).
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  We aimed to describe the prevalence, management, and outcome of incidentally discovered adrenal mass on radiological investigation.
  
  
  METHODS
  A retrospective analysis was conducted to look for IAM identified by abdominal CT performed for other reasons between 2004 and 2008 and were followed for 4 years. IAM patients with known malignancy or clinically evident adrenal disease or overt disease originally missed due to insufficient clinical examination were excluded.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 13,115 patients underwent abdominal CT, of which 136 were identified with adrenal mass (69 males and 67 females). Overall, 84 patients had benign IAM and six had primary adrenal carcinoma (all had tumor size ≥4 cm and five were males). Hormonal evaluation was performed in 80 cases, which revealed hypersecretion in 10 cases (six had Conn's syndrome and four had pheochromocytoma). Males had higher frequency of right-sided IAMs; whereas, left-sided IAM swere more common among females (P = 0.02). Seven patients underwent surgery and all were males (one Conn's syndrome, one pheochromocytoma, three primary adrenal adenocarcinoma, one benign nonfunctional adenoma, and one metastatic tumor). Only one patient died due to brain metastasis.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The overall prevalence of adrenal incidentaloma is 1% in Qatar. Unfortunately, hormonal evaluation, surgical referral, and follow-up are not appropriate in this study. Moreover, screening of IAM warrants more attention to rule out malignancy. This work could be of value as a local auditing for the current management.
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgery, Trauma Surgery Section, Hamad Medical Corporation, Doha, Qatar.
authors.forename: Hassan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Al-Thani
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Research, Trauma Surgery Section, Hamad Medical Corporation, Doha, Qatar ; Department of Clinical Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College, Doha, Qatar.
authors.forename: Ayman
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: El-Menyar
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgery, Trauma Surgery Section, Hamad Medical Corporation, Doha, Qatar.
authors.forename: Marym
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Al-Sulaiti
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgery, Trauma Surgery Section, Hamad Medical Corporation, Doha, Qatar.
authors.forename: Hesham
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: ElGohary
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgery, Trauma Surgery Section, Hamad Medical Corporation, Doha, Qatar.
authors.forename: Ahmed
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Al-Malki
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Research, Trauma Surgery Section, Hamad Medical Corporation, Doha, Qatar.
authors.forename: Mohammad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Asim
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgery, Trauma Surgery Section, Hamad Medical Corporation, Doha, Qatar.
authors.forename: AbdelHakem
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tabeb
keywords: Adrenal mass; Computed tomography; Incidentaloma; Malignancy