Selvihan BEYSEL, Mustafa ÇALIŞKAN, Muhammed KIZILGÜL, Seyfullah KAN, Mustafa ÖZBEK, Erman ÇAKAL

Clinical evaluation of pituitary insufficiency in adult population

Background/aim: This retrospective study aimed to investigate the clinical profile of pituitary insufficiency PI in adult population. Materials and methods: One hundred and fifty patients who were diagnosed as having PI between 2012 and 2018 53.3% female, mean age 48.13 ± 15.83 years were retrospectively analyzed. Results: Age at diagnosis was higher in females as compared with males 51.13 ± 15.95 vs. 44.70 ± 15.08 years, P = 0.012 . The most frequent presenting signs were headache 29.4% and visual disturbance 19.6% in general. Females frequently presented with headache 33.3% , whereas males presented with sexual dysfunction 34.4% . The most frequent cause of PI was nonfunctional pituitary adenoma 28.8% in general population. A frequent cause of PI was Sheehan's syndrome 33.8% among females and nonfunctional pituitary adenoma 38.6% among males. Pituitary macroadenoma 75.8% was frequent in pituitary tumors with PI. 55.3 % of the patients had 4 pituitary hormones deficiencies and 26.0% of patients had 3 pituitary hormones deficiencies. Gonadotropin deficiency was the leading pituitary hormone deficiency. The frequency of posttraumatic PI was 4.7% in the general population. Conclusion: Nonfunctional pituitary adenoma was the most common cause of PI among males and Sheehan's syndrome was a major etiologic factor in females. Sheehan's syndrome remains an important health problem in Turkey although obstetric care has improved. Posttraumatic PI should be considered in the differential diagnosis of idiopathic PI.

Keywords:

Pituitary insufficiency, pituitary adenoma, Sheehan's syndrome,

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