Adult UrologyDetection of adrenal and retroperitoneal masses in a general health examination system
Section snippets
Material and methods
From May 1991 through February 1996, 41,357 subjects (29,647 men and 11,710 women) participated in the general health examination system at the Hokkaido Health Insurance Central Hospital (Table I). Although the number of men was approximately three times larger than that of women, there was no difference in age distribution. Approximately 80% of participants were 40 to 59 years old.
The general health examination consists of several parameters. Height, weight, blood pressure, eyesight, and
Detection rate
Forty-three participants (0.1%) had abnormal findings on US (Table I). Of those, 28 (65.1%) underwent CT examination to confirm the lesions. CT demonstrated adrenal or retroperitoneal masses in 12 patients. Thus, the detection rate was 0.029% of total participants and 42.9% of those who underwent CT examination. Between male and female subjects, there were no significant differences in the proportion of participants having abnormal findings on US, those who were examined by CT, and those having
Comment
The advantages and frequent application of imaging modalities such as US and CT have resulted in an increasing number of incidentally discovered adrenal tumors.1, 2 US is a useful diagnostic tool for detection of adrenal masses and kidney diseases such as renal cell carcinoma, cysts, stones, and hydronephrosis.9, 10, 11 Although CT is superior to US for examination of the adrenal gland,12 US is a noninvasive procedure that can be easily performed compared with CT. There are many reports on the
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