Endocrine Abstracts

Background: The prevalence of pituitary adenomas (PAs) is increasing as the development of imaging techniques. The objective of this study is to assess the clinical and morphological features of non-functioning, prolactin, and grown-hormone secreting pituitary adenomas and to analyze the accompanying diseases of each condition.

Methods: A retrospective analysis of the clinical records of patients with non-functioning (NFPA), prolactin (PRL+) or grown hormone (GH+) secreting adenoma was performed. A total of 194 patients who attended Vilnius University Santaros Clinic‘s in the year of 2016 were analyzed.

Results: The distribution of each pituitary adenoma subtype was prolactin-secreting adenomas occupying 45.9% of the total subjects. The study founds that between all PAs, men have significantly larger tumors (average 23.46 mm) than women (average 11.84 mm). Most patients complain of one symptom related to their diagnosis, patients who complain of three and more symptoms tend to have bigger tumors (12.27 mm – average size in one symptom group, 16.87 mm – in three symptoms group), however, there is no significant correlation between the higher number of symptoms and tumor size. Headaches were the most common symptom among NFPA patients (36.5%), menstrual dysfunction in females was among PRL+ group (36.4%) while enlargement of hands and feets were in GH+ group (48.7%). Younger patients were more often diagnosed with prolactin-secreting adenomas (average 39 years old), nonfunctioning and GH secreting adenomas are usually diagnosed within 49–51 years old patients. Thyroid conditions (hypothyroidism, hyperthyroidism, goiter, thyroid nodules and cancer) accompanied 49% of all patients diagnosed with PA‘s. Statistically significant correlation was between those two disorders was found in GH secreting group, where 81% of patients had had thyroid conditions.

Conclusion: Male patients tend to have significantly larger pituitary tumors than female. Patients with prolactin-secreting pituitary adenomas are more likely to be diagnosed at a younger age compared with patients with nonfunctioning and GH secreting adenomas. There is a correlation between GH secreting adenomas and thyroid diseases.