
Health Dictionary
Reliable, easy-to-read patient information on common medical conditions — written in plain language, free of jargon, and grounded in current evidence. Browse the most frequent diagnoses, understand what they mean for everyday life, and learn which steps and questions help you have a focused conversation with your doctor.
Incidentaloma differential diagnosis
Introduction

Overview
Overview
Adrenal incidentaloma must be differentiated from other diseases that cause adrenal masses such as adrenal adenoma, adrenocortical carcinoma, Cushing’s syndrome, pheochromocytoma, metastasis, and other causes of bilateral adrenal masses.
Differentiating different causese of Incidentaloma
Differentiating different causese of Incidentaloma
- The cause of adrenal incidentaloma commonly include adrenal adenoma, sub-clinical Cushing’s syndrome, pheochromocytoma, and adrenocortical carcinoma. These causes can be differentiated from each other as follows:
| Differential Diagnosis | Clinical picture | Imagings | Laboratory tests | |
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| Adrenal adenoma |
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| Adrenocortical carcinoma |
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| Cushing’s syndrome |
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| Pheochromocytoma |
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| Adrenal metastasis |
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Differential diagnosis of Cushing’s disease from other diseases
The table below summarizes the findings that differentiate Cushing’s disease from other conditions that may cause hypertension, hyperandrogenism, and obesity. Facial plethora, skin changes, osteoporosis, nephrolithiasis and neuropsychiatric conditions should raise the concern for Cushing’s syndrome.[1][2][3][4]
Differentiating pheochromocytoma from other diseasesPheochromocytoma must be differentiated from other causes of paroxysmal hypertension. The differentials include:
References
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Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]; Associate Editor(s)-in-Chief: Mohammed Abdelwahed M.D[2]
