Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Pituitary adenomas are the most common cause of sellar masses from the third decade on, accounting for up to 10 percent of all intracraneal neoplasms.

Objective: To review pituitary adenomas diagnosed in Burgos.

Patients and methods: It was a retrospective study in which we reviewed a total of 90 pituitary adenomas detected in Burgos from 1983 to our days.

Results: About 65% were macroadenomas and 35% were microadenomas. At the moment of diagnosis the median size of macroadenomas was 2.9±1.9 cm and of microadenomas 0.5±0.3. Macroadenomas had similar frequency in both sexes (30 cases in men and 29 cases in women) while microadenomas were diagnosed more frequently in women (26 vs 5 in men). The most frequent type was the non-functioning adenoma (42 cases), followed by lactotroph adenoma (20), corticotroph adenoma (12), somatotroph adenoma (11), thyrotropin-secreting adenoma (4) and gonadotroph adenoma (1). Corticotroph, lactotroph and tyrotropin-secreting adenomas were detected more frequently in women. The youngest at the moment of detection were the patients with corticotroph adenomas (35±18 years). The oldest ones were the non-functioning adenomas (57.7±16 years). The biggest ones were the non-functioning adenoma (2.6±2.4 cm), followed by lactotroph (2.5±1.5), somatotroph (2.3±0.8) and thyrotrophin secreting adenomas (2±0).

Conclusions: In our study we have a great number of macroadenomas and lactotroph adenomas are not the most frequent adenoma’s type. It could be due to the way we have selected our patients. We have used the information that was recorded in our hospital’s data base. These patients are the ones that were treated with surgery or radiotherapy, so many patients with lactotroph microadenomas have been lost. Three of our four thyrotropin-secreting adenomas died from hemorrhage complications. This association has not been described before.