Hormones

Could Nonfunctional Adrenal Tumors Raise Diabetes Risk?

Adults with nonfunctional adrenal tumors (NFATs)—typically classified as benign—have an increased risk of prediabetes and type 2 diabetes compared with those without adrenal tumors, according to a new study.

Abdominal imaging often uncovers adrenal tumors, which are typically classified as nonfunctional and benign.
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The researchers of this study aimed to understand whether patients with NFATs are at an increased risk of cardiometabolic diseases compared with those without adrenal tumors.

To conduct their cohort study, the researchers reviewed the medical records of 166 patients with NFATs and 740 patients without adrenal tumors who were treated in an integrated hospital system.

After a mean 7.7-year follow-up, the researchers found that patients with NFATs had a 15.6% higher risk of prediabetes or type 2 diabetes than those without adrenal tumors.

In addition, patients with higher “normal” postdexamethasone cortisol levels (≤50 nmol/L) had larger NFATs and a higher prevalence of type 2 diabetes.

“Participants with NFATs had a significantly higher risk for diabetes than those without adrenal tumors,” the researchers concluded.

“These results should prompt a reassessment of whether the classification of benign adrenal tumors as ‘nonfunctional’ adequately reflects the continuum of hormone secretion and metabolic risk they may harbor.”

—Amanda Balbi

Reference:

Lopez D, Luque-Fernandez MA, Steele A, Adler GK, Turchin A, Vaidya A. “Nonfunctional” adrenal tumors and the risk for incident diabetes and cardiovascular outcomes: a cohort study [published online August 2, 2016]. Ann Intern Med. doi:10.7326/M16-0547.