Daily dynamics of peripheral blood corticosteroids in patients with a primary diagnosis of "hormone-inactive" adrenal tumors

Abstract

This paper reports the findings of search for probable hormone markers needed for diagnosis and choice of treatment strategy for patients with adrenal tumors without characteristic endocrine symptoms. Thirty women and 11 men with hormonally inactive tumors (HIT) and a control group matched for age and sex were examined. Steroid hormones were radioimmunoassayed. Tumor sizes varied from 1.3 to 10 cm according to ultrasonic examination, computer tomography, and results of surgery. The concentrations of the main steroid hormones and their precursors were virtually the same in patients with light-cell adenoma, HIT without morphological diagnosis, and controls. Some patients had high levels of corticosterone, dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and dehydroepiandrosterone sulfonate (DHEA-S), which indicates the presence of adrenal hormonally-active tumors which were not diagnosed by standard hormone analysis including measurements of hydrocortisone and aldosterone. These data necessitate addition of measurements of corticosterone, DHEA, and DHEA-S in the protocol of examination of patients with HIT.