Nodular adrenal disease is a frequent occurrence in common clinical practice. It has undergone a notable increase due to the diffusion of diagnostic imaging performed for different clinical problems. Although the incidental finding of an adrenal incidentaloma occurs from the middle age, epidemiologically these lesions are more frequent in old age. Most are non-secreting adenomas but some of them may be characterized by a different hormonal activity. On the contrary, the adrenal malignant forms are the minor part. In addition to adrenal incidentaloma, the adrenal nodule, diagnosed during the follow-up of patients with previous neoplastic disease, need a differential diagnosis for the risk of being metastases.
This study aims to evaluate morphological and functional characteristics of adrenal nodules diagnosed in a series of patients previously affected by malignant tumors. Preliminarly, in a cohort of patients with these characteristics, will be evaluate hormone levels according to current protocols of study for the adrenal nodule and a basal and dynamic CT study. Finally, all those non-secreting nodules with high basal values of HU and relative and absolute wash out suspected for malignancy will be studied with 18F-FDG-PET.
