[Ultrasound of incidental tumors of the adrenal gland and endocrine hypertension].

We report on a retrospective analysis of 1,500 hypertensive patients who underwent a sonographic examination of the abdomen. 8 'incidentalomas' of the adrenal gland (0.6%) were thereby found. Endocrinological analysis showed that only 1 of the incidentalomas was active (pheochromocytoma). The other tumors had no endocrine activity. On the other side, 7 patients without any sonographic abnormality had hyperaldosteronism, 1 patient suffered from an adrenomedullary hyperplasia. Those patients had been thought to have endocrine hypertension from clinical suspicion. We conclude that a thorough sonographic examination of the adrenal area is an important part of the diagnostic workup in hypertensive patients, although most of the incidentally discovered tumors are endocrinologically inactive. Adrenocortical and adrenomedullary hyperplasias and adrenocortical adenomas are detected clinically while they are still not visible by ultrasound.