Pituitary Tumours

Symptoms:

• Headache (intracranial pressure)
• Drowsiness
• Seizure
• Visual defects (pressure on optic chiasm)
• Abnormal hormone secretion

Abnormal hormone secretion:

• Hyperprolactinemia
  • Most common type of pituitary tumour - excess prolactin release
  • Galactorrhea
  • Amenorrhea
• Adrenocorticotropic hormone(ACTH)
  • Cushings disease
    
• Growth Hormone (GH)
  • Gigantism (prepubertal)
  • Acromegaly (postpubertal)

These tumours can destroy pituitary gland:

• Compression compromises vascular supply
• Panhypopituitaryism - entire hopothalamic-pituitary affected - all of these hormones
• Sheehan’s syndrome
  -Another cause of panhypopituitaryism
  -Vascular collapse following an obstetrical hemorrhage
• Pituitary stalk transection
  - commonly caused by motor vehicle accidents MVA
  - get Panhypopiuitaryism,. except prolactin hormone (PRL) is elevated