Nonfunctioning adrenal incidentalomas are not clinically silent: A longitudinal cohort study

Abstract

Objective: The association between nonfunctioning adrenal incidentalomas (NFAIs) and cardiometabolic diseases remains controversial. This retrospective cohort study investigated whether NFAIs are related with prevalent and incident cardiometabolic diseases. Methods: This study included 154 patients with biochemically confirmed NFAIs and 1:3 age and sex-matched controls without adrenal incidentalomas (n = 462) among subjects who underwent abdominal computed tomography at a single healthcare center in 2003-2012. Electronic medical records were reviewed for comorbidities at baseline and during a mean follow-up of 7.5 years. The logistic regression analysis for prevalent cardiometabolic diseases and the survival analysis for incident cardiometabolic diseases were performed. Results: The subjects were 55.7 ± 8.8 years of age and predominantly male (73.1%). The NFAI group had a higher body mass index compared to the age and sex-matched control group (25.1 ± 2.8 vs. 24.0 ± 2.8 kg/m2; P