[Clinical use of magnetic resonance tomography for assessing adrenal function in patients with arterial hypertension].

Abstract

99 patients with arterial hypertension (AH) were studied: 17 patients with pheochromocytoma, 37 with aldosteronoma, 4 with corticosteroma, 38 with essential hypertension. Control group included 16 healthy subjects. The investigation was performed by means of a NMR-tomograph BMT-1100 ("Brucker", FRG) in axial and frontal planes according to Spin Echo (SE) technique with TR = 2.0 s, TE = 34 ms. Qualitative (visual) as well as quantitative criteria for evaluation of adrenal glands state were developed. Normal size of adrenal glands, relative intensity of their signal and T2 were calculated. The data obtained proved that relative intensity of the signal is a highly informative parameter for differential diagnosis of adrenal gland tumors (its value of less than 1.0 is evidence of cortex lesion, and that of more than 1.4--of medulla lesion). High informative value of MR-tomography for evaluation of adrenal glands state in patients with AH is proved by comparative data obtained by other methods, such as computer tomography aortography and histomorphology.