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Nonfunctioning adrenal incidentaloma affecting central blood pressure and arterial stiffness parameters

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Abstract

Purpose

Recently, cardiovascular risk is thought to be increased in patients with nonfunctioning adrenal incidentaloma (NFAI). There are no sufficient studies in the literature to evaluate this situation in NFAI patients without cardiovascular risk. The objective of this study is to compare peripheral and central blood pressure and arterial stiffness between patients with NFAI and healthy volunteers (of a similar age, gender and body mass index as the NFAI group) who have no traditional cardiovascular risk factors and autonomous cortisol secretion, with pulse wave analysis (PWA).

Methods

In this cross-sectional study, we evaluated 35 NFAI patients who have no traditional cardiovascular risk factors and 35 healthy volunteers. PWA was performed in the participants of similar gender, age and body mass index, with a Mobil-O-Graph PWA/ABPM (I.E.M. GmBH, Stolberg, Germany) device. Radiological and biochemical data were obtained retrospectively in the NFAI group.

Results

In our study, systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), mean arterial pressure (MAP), central SBP, central DBP, peripheral vascular resistance, augmentation pressure (AP), heart rate-corrected augmentation index (Aix@75) and pulse wave velocity (PWV) values were significantly higher in the NFAI group compared to the control group. In addition, peripheral and central blood pressure and arterial stiffness parameters were correlated with age and duration of NFAI diagnosis of more than 1 year.

Conclusions

NFAIs are known as cardiometabolically innocent, but in our study, both peripheral and central blood pressure values and arterial stiffness parameters were negatively affected in patients diagnosed with NFAI who have no traditional cardiovascular risk factors. These patients are at risk of cardiovascular diseases.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Internal Medicine, Sağlık Bilimleri Üniversitesi (University of Health Sciences) Keçiören SUAM, Ankara, Turkey

    Tolga Akkan, Yasemin Ünsal & Esin Beyan

  2. Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Sağlık Bilimleri Üniversitesi (University of Health Sciences) Keçiören SUAM, Ankara, Turkey

    Mustafa Altay & Murat Dağdeviren

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  1. Tolga Akkan
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  2. Mustafa Altay
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  3. Yasemin Ünsal
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Correspondence to Mustafa Altay.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Akkan, T., Altay, M., Ünsal, Y. et al. Nonfunctioning adrenal incidentaloma affecting central blood pressure and arterial stiffness parameters. Endocrine 58, 513–520 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12020-017-1439-6

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