MR Elastography Distinguishes Between Adrenal Adenomas and Malignomas by Increased Stiffness

The ability to distinguish a benign from a malignant adrenal mass based on magnetic resonance imaging relaxation times is severely limited. For the first time at all, this study adrenal gland stiffness was investigated by using magnetic resonance elastography in healthy controls and participants with adrenal adenoma and malignoma. In healthy controls MRE was highly reproducible. Adrenal adenoma and malignoma are stiffer than healthy controls and both could be distinguished by an excellent diagnostic performance (AUC 0.8–1.0). MRE is promising non-invasive biomarker for clinically difficult differentiation of a malignancy and could prevent surgical overtreatment in the future.