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 A 44 year-old woman developed progressive headaches. On examination, she was found to have a dense bitemporal hemianopsia.  | 
		

        
        
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| Pituitary Macroadenoma. (Left) T1-weighted 
			sagittal MRI; (Middle) 
			T1-weighted with gadolinium sagittal MRI; (Right) T1-weighted with 
gadolinium coronal MRI. Note the large enhancing mass in the region of the sella 
			that is growing up into and displacing the optic chiasm and 
			hypothalamus. Surgical resection demonstrated a large pituitary 
			adenoma. By definition, pituitary macroadenomas are benign tumors 
			of the pituitary gland that are greater than 10 mm in diameter. 
			Similar to microadenomas, macroadenomas may come to medical 
			attention due to signs and symptoms of endocrine dysfunction from 
			excessive hormonal production. However, in contrast to microadenomas, 
			macroadenomas may result in reduced hormone production of some or 
			all of the pituitary hormones (panhypopituitarism) as the tumor 
			grows and compresses the normal pituitary tissue. Macroadenomas may 
			also result in focal neurological signs and symptoms due to mass 
			effect as the tumor grows outside of the sella and compresses the 
			optic chiasm and hypothalamus above. Lesions of the optic chiasm 
			classically result in a bitemporal hemianopsia.   | 
		
Revised
11/27/06.
Copyrighted 2006. David C Preston