Adrenal Myelolipoma: 372 Cases from A High-volume Center

Abstract Background. Adrenal myelolipoma (AML) is a non-functional benign neoplasm from adrenal cortex, composed of mature fat and hematopoietic tissue. Usually, patients have no symptoms. However, some present with hypertension and blood pressure normalizes after surgery, indicating some connections between AML and hypertension.Materials and Methods. This is a retrospective cohort study of 372 patients diagnosed with AML from September 2008 to December 2018 collected in Urology Department of West China Hospital, Chengdu, Sichuan, China. We collected clinical records of patients before surgery. Postoperative follow-up was also done for those with hypertension and whether patients needed to take antihypertensive drugs and postoperative blood pressure were recorded. We aim to explore the characteristics of both AML patients with hypertension and remission of hypertension in 1 year after surgery.Results. There were 372 AML patients included in the study, 159 males and 213 females, aged 49.77±11.64 years old. Among them, 118 patients presented with hypertension. The percentage of hypertension in each subgroup increased with age. Sixty patients were followed up for 1 to 9 years, with a median follow-up of 52 months. The course of hypertension in the remission group was shorter than that in the non-remission group (P=0.020), and tumor lateralization was significantly different between two groups (P=0.005).Conclusion. Nearly one third of AML patients suffered from hypertension in our study and there do exist some potential links between AML and hypertension.