Adrenal gland volume after spinal cord injury.

Objective: Spinal cord injury in adult men may result in hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis dysfunction. Atrophy of adrenal glands was speculated in these patients. This study was undertaken to clarify the functional-anatomic correlation between adrenal volume and body surface area in subjects with spinal cord injury with impaired adrenal reserve.

Design: Twenty male subjects with chronic spinal cord injury with impaired adrenal reserve were identified by adrenocorticotropic hormone stimulation test from a group of 42 subjects. All subjects with spinal cord injury and healthy volunteers underwent computed tomographic imaging with contiguous 3-mm section over adrenal glands for volumetric measurements. Ten pairs of subjects with spinal cord injury and controls with matched height and weight were included in the statistical analysis.

Results: Significantly increased relative adrenal volumes were noted among subjects with chronic spinal cord injury and impaired adrenal reserve as compared with the body weight-matched and height-matched control group.

Conclusions: Increased relative adrenal volumes were found after chronic spinal cord injury. Hyperplasia of the zona glomerulosa may be the cause of increased relative adrenal volume after chronic spinal cord injury.