Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Prolactinoma is a type of pituitary tumor that produces excessive amount of the hormone prolactin. It is the most common type of hormonally-active pituitary tumor. These tumors can result in ocular complications such as vision loss and visual fields (VF) defect. In this study, we aimed to evaluate thicknesses of chorioretinal layers in patients with prolactinoma.

Material and method: We enrolled 21 prolactinoma patients (13 females, 8 males and mean age: 40.7±8.1 years) and 18 age and gender matched healthy controls. All participants underwent complete hormonal and ophthalmological examination including thicknesses of chorioretinal layers and VF test. We used the Spectralis spectral domain optical coherence tomography for evaluation of chorioretinal layers in an outpatient setting. The seven layers were retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL), ganglion cell layer (GCL), inner plexiform layer (IPL), inner nuclear layer (INL), outer plexiform layer (OPL), outer nuclear layer (ONL), and retinal pigment epithelium (RPE). Additionally, we calculated the mean thickness of two combined layers: inner retinal layer (IRL) and photoreceptor layer (PL). The results of prolactinoma patients were compared with the control group.

Results: There were no statistically significant differences in median right-left and mean RNFL, GCL, IPL, INL, OPL, ONL, and IRL measurements between prolactinoma and control groups (P>0.05 for each). Median right and mean RPE were significantly low in the prolactinoma group (P=0.018 and P=0.028, respectively). Median right-left PL was similar in two groups, while mean PL was significantly lower in patients with prolactinoma compared to control group (P=0.04) None of the patients had VF defect. When we compared two subgroups of prolactinoma patients (active/inactive), we found that the thicknesses of layers were not significantly different between the groups.

Conclusion: To our knowledge, this is the first study that evaluates thicknesses of chorioretinal layers in patients with prolactinoma. Thicknesses of many layers were similar with control group, while mean RPE and PL were lower in prolactinoma group.