BACKGROUND Sellar masses (SM) are mostly benign growths of pituitary or nonpituitary origin that are increasingly encountered in clinical practice. To date, no comprehensive population-based study has reported the epidemiology of SM from North America. AIM To determine the epidemiology of SM in the province of Nova Scotia, Canada. METHODS Data from all pituitary-related referrals within the...

OBJECT Craniopharyngiomas are challenging tumors that most frequently occur in the sellar or suprasellar regions. Microscopic transsphenoidal resections with various extensions and variations have been performed with good results. The addition of the endoscope as well as the further expansion of the standard and extended transsphenoidal approaches has not been well evaluated for the treatment o...

Rathke's cleft cysts (RCCs) are benign epithelium-lined intrasellar cysts containing mucoid material and are believed to originate from the remnants of Rathke's pouch. Most are asymptomatic but may cause symptoms secondary to compression of adjacent structures such as visual disturbances and endocrinopathies, especially hypopituitary. Furthermore, inflammation such as an aseptic meningitis synd...

www.expert-reviews.com ISSN 1744-6651 © 2009 Expert Reviews Ltd 10.1586/EEM.09.37 General features of autoimmune hypophysitis Autoimmune (lymphocytic) hypophysitis (AH), is a chronic inflammation of the pituitary gland caused or accompanied by pituitary autoimmunity [1,2]. It can be classified etiologically into two groups: primary and secondary hypophysitis. Primary hypophysitis is, by definit...

The evolution of the endoscopic endonasal transsphenoidal technique, which was initially reserved only for sellar lesions through the sphenoid sinus cavity, has lead in the last decades to a progressive possibility to access the skull base from the nose. This route allows midline access and visibility to the suprasellar, retrosellar and parasellar space while obviating brain retraction, and mak...

Correspondence To the Editor: A 56-year-old Chinese man was referred to Peking Union Medical College Hospital because of polydipsia (9000 ml/24 h) and polyuria (7000 ml/24 h) for over 20 days accompanied with intermittent moderate headache in frontal and temporal areas of both sides for about 2 weeks. The patient underwent a brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with contrast in a local health...

The introduction of new surgical techniques is often challenging. Laparoscopic surgery was enthusiastically adopted when first introduced but suffered bad publicity due to an increased complication rate when compared with the earlier ‘open’ surgical procedures that it had replaced. It is now inconceivable that surgeons would routinely offer patients ‘open’ cholecystectomy and laparoscopy has be...

Along with the well characterized control of pituitary function by hypothalamic hormones, several cytokines mediate signaling between the neuroendocrine and immune systems. Interleukin-1 (IL-1), IL-6, tumor necrosis factor-a and, recently, leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) and IL-11 (1, 2) are the most thoroughly characterized. LIF belongs to the IL-6 cytokine family, together with IL-6, IL-11, ...

In April 2007, a 21-year-old woman presented with secondary amenorrhoea for 5 years. Her past medical history included bilateral valgus heels with difficulty in walking as a toddler, fractured nose and epistaxis with nasal septum deviation (seen in ENT clinic in 1998). She had a family history of migraine and was referred to the neurology clinic for throbbing headaches in the right frontal regi...

Zug, George R. The Distribution and Patterns of the Major Arteries of the Iguanids and Comments on the Intergeneric Relationships of Iguanids (Reptilia: Lacertilia). Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology, 83: 1-23. 1971.—The spatial arrangement of the major arteries, i.e., systemic arches, carotid arches and major branches, subclavians, coeliac, and mesenteries, are described for 42 genera of ig...