Endocrine Abstracts

Nowadays neuro-radiological explorations are so frequent that radiologists discover more and more pituitary lesions. In this work we would like to study pituitary microlesions (PML: inferior or equal to 10 mm) in order to analyze age and sex repartition, clinical symptoms leading to the diagnosis, position in the pituitary area and the apparent etiologies.

All our patients are examined and hormonal exploration is as complete as possible.

Results: Among 85 subjects with PML proved by TDM and or MRI, there are 79 women and 6 men (sex ratio=13/1). Age at diagnosis =30.8 years (14–73), most of them are between 21 and 30 years old. The complaints are: Gonadal dysfunction =72%, galactorrhea =10.5%, headaches =5.8%, metabolic abnormalities =6.7% and visual troubles =4.3%. The diagnosis is really fortuitous in 2 subjects =2.3%. For the apparent etiology there are 58 prolactinomas, 12 ACTH (19.2%), 10 non functioning (11.8%) and 5 somatotrop adenomas =5.7%. The average size =6.45 mm (3–10). 58% are in right pituitary area, 23%, in the left and 13% in the middle.

Conclusion: In our population the diagnosis of pituitary microlesions is rarely fortuitous. Gonadal abnormalities are the most complaints. This may be explained by the high frequency of female cases and secreting tumors. The diagnosis is relatively late (mean size =6.5 mm). PML are frequently located in the right area. ACTH PML are the smallest and the GH one are the biggest