Table 5.

Excretion of glucocorticoid steroids in patients with adrenocortical adenoma, in patients with adrenocortical carcinoma without hypersecretion of cortisol and its metabolites (ACC), and in patients with adrenocortical carcinoma and Cushing’s syndrome (ACC-CS) by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry

Name of steroids	Median/lower and upper quartiles (μg/24 h)
	Patients with adrenocortical adenoma		Patients with adrenocortical carcinoma
	Hormonally non-active adenomas (n = 52)	Cushing’s syndrome (n = 44)	ACC (n = 18)	ACC-CS (n = 13)
Tetrahydrocortisone	1705/1334–2632	3061/2154–3834**	1501/1104–2289	4946/4272–8336*** p = 0.01
Tetrahydrocorticosterone	99/70–203	178/117–363*	234/114–401	583/361–1090** p = 0.03
Tetrahydrocortisol (THF)	679/399–867	1898/1500–2910**	932/557–1260	5739/4717–6889*** p = 0.004
Allo-THF	569/215–1069	1060/624–1810*	424/234–1027	1515/915–2078*
α + β-Cortolones	655/406–1028	1167/606–1650*	563/484–880	3016/2056–3856*** p = 0.04
α + β-Cortols	91/54–151	217/87–373*	212/141–487	593/315–2065* p = 0.04
Hexahydrocorticosterone	194/97–346	239/132–369	334/86–419	582/145–722*
Dihydrocortisone	32/14–38	35/28–97	88/29–101	101/88–135*
Dihydrocortisol	17/9–25	61/29–101*	29/15–35	201/138–265*
Cortisone	37/13–58	48/24–98	47/12–55	133/110–235*
Cortisol	29/13–47	105/71–154*	25/15–35	1162/471–1217 ** p = 0.02

*p < 0.05, **p < 0.001, ***p < 0.0001—comparison of each group of patients with hormonally non-active adenomas; p—comparison of ACC-CS patients with CS patients