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Pituitary adenoma CT

Introduction

Overview

Overview

On head CT scan may be helpful in the diagnosis of pituitary adenoma. Findings on CT scan suggestive of pituitary adenoma include a large suprasellar mass that invade surrounding structures, calcification, and rarely hemorrhage.

Key CT Scan Findings in Pituitary Adenoma

Key CT Scan Findings in Pituitary Adenoma

Microadenoma

  • Historically, before the advent of MRI, the pituitary was imaged with CT scan.
  • Although CT scan is able to detect up to 80-90% of microadenomas (5-10mm in size), it has less sensitivity to smaller adenomas (less than 5mm in size).[1]

Macroadenoma

  • An attenuation similar to that of the brain (30-40 HU)
  • Moderate contrast enhancement
  • Invasion of the surrounding structures
References

References

  1. ↑ Pituitary Microadenoma. Dr Amir Rezaee and Dr Frank Gaillard. Radiopaedia.org 2015. http://radiopaedia.org/articles/pituitary-microadenoma
  2. ↑ Pituitary Macroadenoma. Dr Bruno Di Muzio and Dr Yuranga Weerakkody. Radiopaedia.org 2015. http://radiopaedia.org/articles/pituitary-macroadenoma-1
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Image courtesy of Dr. Gagandeep Choudhary. Radiopaedia (original file here). Creative Commons BY-SA-NC
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Case contributed by Radswiki. [1] (original file [2]).

Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [3] Associate Editor(s)-in-Chief: Ahmad Al Maradni, M.D. [4]