A CASE OF NONFUNCTIONAL ADRENAL CORTICAL ADENOMA

Abstract

Nonfunctional adrenal contical adenoma is difficult to diagnose, but the case report has increased according to the development of diagnostic technique recently. A 50-year-old woman was referred to our hospital with recurrent right hypochondralgia and fever. Abdominal plain X-ray film showed no signs but bilateral adrenal tumors with a low density area were detected with the CT. No abnormal hormonal findings were detected. From these findings, the patient was diagnosed to have a nonfunctional adrenal tumor and operated on. Pathologically, it was a cortical adenoma with clear and dark cells, so-called combination type. In Japan, 22 cases have been reported since 1961 when Hayashi reported the first case. Nonfunctional adrenal cortical adenoma is definited to have no clinical symptoms nor increase in steroids in blood and urine, therefore it is rarely found in an living patient. We describe a case of the disease together with a review of the literature.