Bilateral Adrenal Incidentalomas May Have Different Etiology Than Unilateral
MedicalResearch.com recently interviewed Quan-Yang Duh M.D. (pictured first), Chief of the Section of Endocrine Surgery, Division of General Surgery, at UCSF, on the differences in etiology of unilateral vs. bilateral incidentalomas.
What we found in our study was that although the possible subclinical diseases were the same – hypercortisolism and pheochromocytoma, the probabilities were different. The patients with bilateral incidentalomas were more likely to have subclinical Cushing’s and less likely to have pheochromocytomas than those with unilateral incidentalomas.
Medical Research: What should clinicians and patients take away from your report?
Dr. Quan-Yang Duh: The work up for bilateral adrenal incidentalomas is similar to that for unilateral incidentalomas. However, patients with bilateral incidentalomas are more likely to have subclinical Cushing’s and less likely to have pheochromocytoma. This difference should be kept in mind when clinicians evaluating these patients.
The discussion was a follow-up to a paper published in JAMA Surgery: Pasternak JD, Seib CD, Seiser N, Tyrell JB, Liu C, Cisco RM, Gosnell JE, Shen WT, Suh I, Duh QY Differences Between Bilateral Adrenal Incidentalomas and Unilateral Lesions. JAMA surgery, Jul-22-2015;[Epub ahead of print]
In addition to Dr. Duh, UCSF Endocrine Surgery Faculty coauthoring the JAMA Surgery paper were: Jessica Gosnell, M.D., Wen T. Shen, M.D., Insoo Suh, M.D. Others contributing to the research as coauthors include former endocrine clinical fellows Jesse D. Pasternak, M.D. (lead author / pictured 2nd), and Natalie Seiser, M.D., Ph.D., and Chief Resident, Carolyn Seib, M.D.