| Objective: Primary objective was to assess the difference in cardiovascular events between functional adrenal incidentaloma (FAI) group and non-functional adrenal incidentaloma (NFAI) group. Secondary Objective was to assess the cardiovascular risk factors between functional adrenal incidentaloma group vs. non-functional adrenal incidentaloma group and between adrenal incidentaloma (AI) group vs. healthy control group by performing a meta-analysis.;Methods: Literature review was performed, 10 observational studies, with a total of 1356 patients, were selected and meta-analysis was performed using Comprehensive Meta-analysis program. Fixed effect model was used to interpret the results. Outcomes of interest were cardiovascular events (e.g. stroke, ischemic heart disease, arrhythmia and heart failure) and cardiovascular disease risk factors like hypertension (HTN), diabetes mellitus (DM), fasting blood glucose (FBG), carotid intima media thickness (CIMT) and fibrinogen levels.;Results: Effect size for cardiovascular events (Odds Ratio =3.63 with 95% Confidence Interval (2.227-5.938) was highly significant and indicated an increased risk of cardiovascular events in functional adrenal incidentaloma group vs. nonfunctional adrenal incidentaloma group. Z value=5.159, p- value=0.000 which is also statistically significant. According to our results the distribution of cardiovascular risk factors like hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and fasting blood glucose was also significantly increased in functional adrenal incidentaloma group vs. nonfunctional adrenal incidentaloma group and in adrenal incidentaloma group vs. the healthy control group. The carotid intima media thickness levels and fibrinogen levels were also significantly increased in AI group vs. the healthy control group, however both these tests had increased heterogeneity.;Conclusion: Functional adrenal incidentaloma group is at increased risk of cardiovascular disease when compared to the nonfunctional adrenal incidentaloma group and adrenal incidentaloma group is at increased risk of cardiovascular disease when compared to the healthy control group. |
