Examination items that patients with pituitary tumor disease should do

We all know that when we are sick, we must go for examination and treatment in time and never delay it. However, many people do not know what examinations are needed for pituitary tumors. Not going to the hospital will delay the treatment time. Today we will learn about the examinations that patients with pituitary tumors should do.

Let us first understand the common symptoms of pituitary tumors:

1. Headache: The headache is usually severe and often occurs in the early morning. Sometimes the patient wakes up from sleep with pain, but the headache will gradually ease or disappear after getting up and doing some light activity.

2. Vomiting: Due to the increase in intracranial pressure, the respiratory center in the medulla oblongata is stimulated, resulting in vomiting. Vomiting often occurs after a headache and is in the form of a jet.

3. Visual impairment: When the intracranial pressure increases, the venous blood return of the eyeball will be blocked, leading to congestion and edema, damaging the visual cells on the retina of the fundus, and causing decreased vision.

4. Mental abnormalities: Brain tumors located in the frontal lobe of the brain can destroy the mental activities of the frontal lobe, causing abnormal mental manifestations such as excitement, agitation, depression, repression, amnesia, and fabrication.

Let’s take a look at what needs to be checked:

X-ray film: When the size is large, the sella turcica can be seen to be enlarged, the diameters of the sella turcica are all enlarged, the sella turcica wall is thinned, the sella turcica floor is moved downward, the sella dorsum is destroyed, and the anterior and posterior beds are narrowed, which makes the sella turcica opening enlarged. The lateral view shows a double sella turcica floor.

CT scan: Conventional CT scans can only detect larger pituitary lesions. High-resolution multi-slice coronal reconstruction CT can detect smaller pituitary tumors during enhanced scanning. The Dutch Philips multi-slice spiral CT scanning system is another milestone in the history of CT development. Compared with previous CT, it has the advantages of fast scanning speed, fast imaging speed, high spatial resolution, short examination time, good image quality, high lesion detection rate, and high accuracy.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI): MRI is the preferred imaging examination for pituitary tumors because of its sensitivity and ability to better display the tumor and its anatomical relationship with surrounding tissues. It can distinguish the optic chiasm and sella turcica diaphragm, clearly show whether cerebral blood vessels and pituitary tumors have invaded the cavernous sinus and sphenoid sinus, and whether the pituitary stalk is compressed.

This is the end of the introduction to the examinations required for pituitary tumors. I believe that after reading the above introduction, you should have a certain understanding of the examinations required for pituitary tumors. If you find some abnormal symptoms, you need to come to the hospital for such examinations in time.