What GPs should know about treating adrenal incidentalomas

INTRODUCTION

ADRENAL incidentaloma (AI) refers to an adrenal lesion greater than 1cm in diameter, discovered inadvertently, in up to 4.2% of patients undergoing radiological imaging.^1-6

As many as one in five incidentalomas are functional,² including: hypersecretion of cortisol causing Cushing’s or Subclinical Cushing’s Syndrome (SCS), catecholamines leading to pheochromocytoma, aldosterone resulting in primary aldosteronism (Conn’s syndrome), and rarely, androgens leading to virilisation of patients.