Incidental finding

From an incidental finding is called in medicine, if at examination in addition to the actual reporting something comes to light, which has nothing to do with the current complaints or disease that were the reason for the investigation. Incidental findings can also be made during an autopsy .

Incidental findings can be meaningless for the patient if it is z. B. are anatomical variants that have no disease value (example: Lobus venae azygos ). However, they can show other serious illnesses as well. For example, a computed tomography scan performed with suspected diverticulitis because of abdominal pain can find a small tumor . In particular, tumors of the adrenal gland and pituitary gland (when examining the head) are referred to as the incidentaloma . In the case of malignant tumors, the accidental discovery can sometimes be regarded as a stroke of luck, namely when the tumor was found at an early stage that can still be treated well before it started to cause symptoms .

Incidental findings that are made in studies in healthy volunteers also repeatedly give rise to ethical considerations.

Literature and individual references

↑ TC Booth, A. Jackson, JM Wardlaw, SA Taylor, AD Waldman: Incidental findings found in "healthy" volunteers during imaging performed for research: current legal and ethical implications. In: The British journal of radiology. Volume 83, Number 990, June 2010, pp. 456-465, ISSN 1748-880X . doi : 10.1259 / bjr / 15877332 . PMID 20335427 . (Review).
^ J. Illes, JE Desmond, LF Huang, TA Raffin, SW Atlas: Ethical and practical considerations in managing incidental findings in functional magnetic resonance imaging. In: Brain and cognition. Volume 50, Number 3, December 2002, pp. 358-365, ISSN 0278-2626 . PMID 12480483 .
↑ SM Wolf, FP Lawrenz, CA Nelson, JP Kahn, MK Cho, EW Clayton, JG Fletcher, MK Georgieff, D. Hammerschmidt, K. Hudson, J. Illes, V. Kapur, MA Keane, BA Koenig, BS Leroy, EG McFarland, J. Paradise, LS Parker, SF Terry, B. Van Ness, BS Wilfond: Managing incidental findings in human subjects research: analysis and recommendations. In: The Journal of law, medicine & ethics: a journal of the American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics. Volume 36, Number 2, 2008, pp. 219-48, 211, ISSN 1073-1105 . doi : 10.1111 / j.1748-720X.2008.00266.x . PMID 18547191 . PMC 2575242 (free full text). (Review).

[booth-1] TC Booth, A. Jackson, JM Wardlaw, SA Taylor, AD Waldman: Incidental findings found in "healthy" volunteers during imaging performed for research: current legal and ethical implications. In: The British journal of radiology. Volume 83, Number 990, June 2010, pp. 456-465, ISSN 1748-880X . doi : 10.1259 / bjr / 15877332 . PMID 20335427 . (Review).

[illes-2] J. Illes, JE Desmond, LF Huang, TA Raffin, SW Atlas: Ethical and practical considerations in managing incidental findings in functional magnetic resonance imaging. In: Brain and cognition. Volume 50, Number 3, December 2002, pp. 358-365, ISSN 0278-2626 . PMID 12480483 .

[wolf-3] SM Wolf, FP Lawrenz, CA Nelson, JP Kahn, MK Cho, EW Clayton, JG Fletcher, MK Georgieff, D. Hammerschmidt, K. Hudson, J. Illes, V. Kapur, MA Keane, BA Koenig, BS Leroy, EG McFarland, J. Paradise, LS Parker, SF Terry, B. Van Ness, BS Wilfond: Managing incidental findings in human subjects research: analysis and recommendations. In: The Journal of law, medicine & ethics: a journal of the American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics. Volume 36, Number 2, 2008, pp. 219-48, 211, ISSN 1073-1105 . doi : 10.1111 / j.1748-720X.2008.00266.x . PMID 18547191 . PMC 2575242 (free full text). (Review).