Fainstein Day, Patricia; Guitelman, Mirtha; Artese, Rosa; Fiszledjer, L.; Chervin, A.; Vitale, M.; Stalldecker, Graciela; De Miguel, V.; Cornaló, Dora; Alfieri, Analía; Mallea Gil, Susana; Aurea, J.
La prevalencia de lesiones hipofisarias previamente no sospechadas (incidentalomas hipofisarios) ha sido estudiada en autopsias y por métodos diagnósticos por imágenes (tomografía computada /TAC, y resonancia magnética nuclear /RMN) siendo estimada en 6 al 27% en las necropsias y 10 al 37% de los estudios por TAC/RMN, según las series. Casi todas las lesiones observadas son microincidentalomas y el 50% serían inmunohistoquímicamente positivos para prolactina. Sin embargo, en la práctica clínica, muchos de los pacientes con incidentalomas hipofisarios (IH) referidos al endocrinólogo o neurocirujano para su evaluación, portan macroincidentalomas que pueden asociarse a transtornos neurológicos y/o disfunción endócrina.
The presence of previously unsuspected pituitary tumors (incidentalomas) has been studied at autopsy and by computarized tomographic scanning (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The incidence showed by autopsy studies has been found to be 6 to 27%, and 10 to 37% by CT/MRI. Almost all of them are microincidentalomas and, in autopsy studies, 50% are immuno-histochemically positive for prolactin. However, patients who are referred for study of pituitary incidentalomas could often have macroadenomas which may present with neurologic and /or endocrine abnormalities. The aim of our study was to establish the incidence of macro vs. microincidentalomas, the need of medical and/or surgical treatment and the neurologic and endocrine disfunction in a retrospective evaluation of patients with pitituary incidentalomas (PI) studied in the last 6 years (1994-2000)