Endocrine Abstracts

Aim

Prolactinoma, which is the most important cause of hyperprolactinemia, is an adenoma that originates from lactotropic cells of the pituitary and causes excessive prolactin release. Besides various physiological effects, the immunoregulatory effect of prolactin and its role in the development of autoimmune diseases are well known. The thyroid gland is one of the organs most frequently affected by autoimmunity. However, in our country, there are few studies examining the relationship between autoimmune thyroid disease (AITD) and prolactinoma. With this study, we aimed to investigate the prevalence of AITD in patients diagnosed with prolactinoma and non-functional pituitary adenoma and to determine the necessity of investigating prolactinoma patients in terms of AITD after diagnosis.

Material and methods

A total of 231 patients were included in the study. 93 patients (66 women/27 men) were included in the prolactinoma group, 68 patients (47 women/21 men) in the NFPA group, and 70 patients (45 women/25 men) in the control group. Pituitary size in patients with prolactinoma and NFPA, serum prolactin level in patients with prolactinoma, thyroid function tests, thyroid autoantibody (anti-Tg and / or anti-TPO, TRAB), thyroid US findings, thyroid fine needle aspiration biopsy and thyroidectomy results of all patients were recorded.

Results

AITD was found in 38.7% (n: 36) of patients in the prolactinoma group, 27.9% (n: 19) of patients in the NFPA group, 37.1% (n: 26) of patients in the control group, and total it was detected in 35% (n: 81) of the patients. There was no significant difference between the groups in terms of the presence of AITD (p: 0.334). Autoantibody positivity and AITD were more common in individuals with microadenomas in the prolactinoma group (p: 0.039, p: 0.019, respectively).

Conclusion

Although there was no statistically significant difference in the prevalence of AITD between the groups, the frequency of AITD in the prolactinoma group was higher than the frequency of AITD reported in previous studies. Another result was that AITD was detected more in patients with microadenoma in patients with prolactinoma than in patients with NFHA. For this reason, it would be beneficial to investigate all newly diagnosed prolactinoma patients in terms of AITD in case of clinical necessity.

Keywords: prolactinoma, hyperprolactinemia, non-functioning pituitary adenoma, autoimmune thyroid disease, hashimoto.