Luteinizing hormone and insulin resistance in menopausal patients with adrenal incidentalomas: The cause-effect relationship?

Abstract

A high prevalence of insulin resistance (IR) has proven to manifest in patients with adrenal incidentalomas (AI). It has been demonstrated that an increase in IR is related to the size of tumourous masses; additionally, luteinizing hormone (LH)-dependent adrenal pathologies are well documented in patients with LH-responsive adrenal tumours occurring under conditions of physiologically elevated LH. We hypothesized that an association between LH and insulin might play a role in adrenal tumourigenesis and steroidogenesis. The aim of our study was to investigate the association between LH and IR; adrenal tumour size (ATS) and IR; LH and cortisol after the 1mg overnight dexamethasone test (1mg DST); and ATS and 1mg DST cortisol in AI patients. This was a case-control study conducted in the Clinic for Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolic Diseases in Belgrade, Serbia. The total study group consisted of 105 menopausal women: 75 AI patients [27 with nonfunctional AI (NAI) and 48 with (possible) autonomous cortisol secretion ((P)ACS)] and 30 age-, BMI-, LH- and menopause duration-matched healthy control (HC) women. To estimate IR, we used homeostasis model assessment (HOMA-IR). Luteinizing hormone and ATS are in a significant positive correlation with HOMA-IR and 1mg DST cortisol in menopausal patients with AI and (P)ACS. Our data point to a possible cause-effect relationship between LH and insulin in patients with AI and (P)ACS adding to the body of evidence of their involvement in adrenal tumourigenesis and steroidogenesis.