Spontaneous pituitary apoplexy in the absence of a known pre-existing pituitary adenoma is a very rare cause of sudden onset headache, but can be potentially sight- and life-threatening. We describe a case of a 37-year-old man who presented to the Emergency Department with a severe headache, associated nausea, vomiting and features of meningism. A suspected clinical diagnosis of subarachnoid ha...

A 76-year-old man had worsening generalized weakness and headache for several months. MRI showed a solid enhancing sellar mass suggestive of a pituitary macroadenoma (figure 1). Differential diagnoses included pituicytoma, paraganglioma, meningioma, and solitary fibrous tumor. Due to intraoperative bleeding, this tumor was only partially resected. Histopathology revealed interwoven fascicles of...

INTRODUCTION Most pituitary adenomas are clinically inactive. In patients with long-standing compression of the optic chiasm, ganglion cells may undergo axonal degeneration. Spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) is able to identify retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) and ganglion cell loss in the retina. We present a case in which SD-OCT was used to diagnose an asymptomatic pituita...

OBJECTIVE To describe the etiology, functional status and short term outcome of patients with pituitary lesions (PL). METHODS Brain or pituitary MRI reports of 3753 patients were analyzed for PL over the period of 2000 to 2007, done at the Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH), Karachi, Pakistan. MRIs with reported PL and all those ordered by Endocrinologists with or without pituitary abnormali...

OBJECTIVE AND IMPORTANCE despite recent progress in imaging, it is still difficult to distinguish between pituitary adenoma and hyperplasia, even using Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) with gadolinium injection. We describe an example of reactive pituitary hyperplasia from primary hypothyroidism that mimicked a pituitary macroadenoma in a child. CLINICAL PRESENTATION a 10 year old boy present...