Interobserver agreement in distinguishing large adrenal adenomas and adrenocortical carcinomas on computed tomography.

PURPOSE: Large adrenal masses pose a diagnostic dilemma. The purpose of this study was twofold: first, to assess the degree of interobserver agreement in evaluating the morphology of pathologically proven adrenal adenomas and adrenocortical carcinomas larger than 4 cm in diameter; and second, to identify morphologic characteristics that correlated with the pathologic diagnosis.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: For this blinded, retrospective study, we collected cases of 25 adrenal adenomas and 33 adrenocortical carcinomas measuring larger than 4 cm. Two radiologists evaluated morphologic characteristics of the lesions on CT. Interobserver agreement was evaluated using kappa statistics, and the correlation of imaging characteristics with the diagnosis was evaluated using a logistic regression model.

RESULTS: We found the highest interobserver agreement in the assessment of precontrast attenuation (Κ = 0.81) as well as substantial agreement in determining the shape and the presence of calcifications (Κ = 0.69 and 0.74, respectively). Readers agreed less often regarding the presence of fat (Κ = 0.48), as well as regarding the presence of necrosis, heterogeneity, and the overall impression (Κ = 0.15, 0.24, and 0.26, respectively). CT characteristics correlated with benignity included round shape (p = 0.02), an overall radiologic impression of a benign lesion (p < 0.0001), the presence of fat (p = 0.01), and a precontrast attenuation of less than 10 Hounsfield units (p < 0.0001). The latter two of these characteristics were highly specific for benign pathology (93% and 100%, respectively).

CONCLUSION: Our study suggests that CT has the ability to consistently identify characteristics significantly correlated with benign vs. malignant adrenal tumors.