Description

Adrenal incidentalomas are clinically silent masses discovered inadvertently during diagnostic imaging procedures performed for unrelated reasons. Depending on the criteria applied, up to 50% of patients with adrenal incidentalomas may have biochemical evidence of cortisol excess. Possible autonomous cortisol secretion (pACS), as defined in the 2016 European Society of Endocrinology Guidelines, is characterized by a partial, incomplete suppression of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis without the typical signs of overt cortisol hypersecretion.

Investigators will perform a prospective longitudinal study in patients with adrenal incidentalomas associated with possible autonomous cortisol secretion, aiming to assess the effect of surgical and conservative management on cardiovascular and metabolic features.

Data will be detected at baseline, at 1 and at 5 years follow-up to quantitatively identify the different cardiovascular and metabolic alterations in: (1) patients with non-functioning adrenal adenoma; (2) patients with possible autonomous cortisol secretion receiving conservative management; (3) patients with possible autonomous cortisol secretion receiving adrenalectomy according to the 2016 European Society of Endocrinology guidelines; (4) patients without adrenal masses.