Retrospective multicentric study of pituitary incidentalomas.

Previously unsuspected pituitary tumors (incidentalomas) were analyzed in autopsies (4.8-27%) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) (10-37%), most of them being micro-pituitary incidentalomas (PI). However, patients with PIs sometimes had macroadenomas which may relate to previously unsuspected neurological and/or endocrine abnormalities.

[Pregnancy after spontaneous necrosis of a pituitary macroadenoma].

Although infrequent, recovery of pituitary function after necrosis of a pituitary adenoma is not an exceptional event. We report the case of a 32-year-old woman with previous surgery for an adrenal mass and signs of hypercortisolism which failed to revert postoperatively. She then developed pituitary apoplexy followed by hypopituitarism, as confirmed by hormonal measurements.

Altered circadian blood pressure profile in patients with active acromegaly. Relationship with left ventricular mass and hormonal values.

To determine the relationships between the circadian blood pressure profile and left ventricular mass, hormonal pattern and insulin sensitivity indices in patients with active acromegaly, ambulatory 24-h blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) was recorded in 25 subjects (47.0 +/- 15.1 years, range 23-72).

[Hyperprolactinemia in subclinical hypothyroidism].

Most patients with subclinical hypothyroidism are asymptomatic; however, when this disorder is associated with alterations of the lactotroph, clinical and biochemical manifestations are evident, along with involvement of the gonadotrophic function. In this report, we selected 11 women with hypothyroidism, 5 of them in stage I and 6 in stage II. In all of them, the thyroid function was altered while the most affected was the gonadal axis.

Alpha subunit of glycoprotein hormones in the sera of acromegalic patients and its mRNA in the tumors.

Within a population of 16 pituitary adenomas we found high levels of glycoprotein alpha subunits in the sera of patients with somatotrophic tumors. This finding was correlated with the presence of mRNA alpha subunit in these tumors indicating the adenomas themselves as the origin of the circulating alpha-subunit. Synthesis of these two hormones, which are chemically very different, by the same tumor cells indicates a high degree of differentiation of these cells.

Expression of c-myc and c-fos and binding sites for estradiol and progesterone in human pituitary tumors.

We studied the concentration of mRNA from the oncogenes c-myc and c-fos in human pituitary adenomas by Northern blot hybridization (35 somatotrophinomas, 9 prolactinomas, 21 nonsecreting and 3 adrenocorticotrophinomas). The concentration of estrogens and progesterone receptors was also investigated. The levels of c-myc and c-fos mRNA was higher in nonsecreting tumors which were generally the largest and had a higher percentage of recurrence after surgery than the other groups.

Pituitary tumors in adolescent patients.

We report on a series of 48 patients, ages 14 to 20 year, with hypophyseal adenomas. Of these, 46 (96%) had secreting tumors, 3 had Cushing's disease, 9 had somatotrophinomas, and 34 (29 females and 5 males) had prolactinomas. Thirty cases were diagnosed as intrasellar adenomas (62%) while the remaining eighteen (38%) presented extrasellar expansion.