Multi-Detector-Row CT Diagnosis of Adrenal Incidentaloma in Patients with Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Taisuke Harada, Tamotsu Kamishima, Satoshi Terae, Yuya Onodera, Hiroki Shirato

Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, Hokkaido University Hospital, Sapporo City, Japan.
Department of Radiation Medicine, Hokkaido University, Graduate School of Medicine, Sapporo City, Japan.
Department of Radiology, Keiyukai Sapporo Hospital, Sapporo City, Japan.
Faculty of Health Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo City, Japan.

DOI: 10.4236/act.2013.21007                

Abstract

We investigate the diagnostic reliability of differentiating between lipid-poor adrenal adenomas and metastatic adrenal tumors originating from hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) using a routine dynamic CT protocol for liver imaging. Eighteen metastatic adrenal tumors originating from HCC and 13 lipid-poor adrenal adenomas were identified. Dynamic CT data were analyzed for CT attenuation of adrenal lesions before and after contrast administration. When a cutoff of 36 HU was set for adrenal lesions at pre-contrast attenuation, the sensitivity and specificity for the diagnosis of metastatic lesions were 94.4%and 92.3%, respectively. Attenuation criteria on pre-contrast CT may help optimize the differentiation between these lesions.

Keywords

CT; Adrenal Incidentaloma; Hepatocellular Carcinoma; Lipid-Poor Adrenal Adenomas; Metastatic Adrenal Tumors

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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