How to diagnose pituitary tumor

We may not know much about pituitary tumors. There are so many diseases nowadays, but people often feel very scared when they hear about tumors. They are always worried that they will lose their lives because of the tumor, so they have to check as soon as possible. So, let us learn how to diagnose pituitary tumors.

Let us first understand what a pituitary tumor is:

Pituitary tumors are a group of tumors that originate from the anterior and posterior pituitary and residual cells of the craniopharyngeal epithelium, accounting for about 10% of intracranial tumors. Most pituitary tumors are benign adenomas, and very few are cancers. The goal of pituitary tumor treatment is to inhibit the tumor's autonomous hormone secretion, remove the tumor to the greatest extent, maintain normal pituitary function, reduce the tumor's impact on vision, prevent tumor recurrence, and prevent and treat complications.

How is a pituitary tumor diagnosed?

1. Clinical manifestation diagnosis: The patient's discomfort symptoms and physical changes after illness are the most basic data for diagnosis. Some subtle manifestations may serve as the basis for important diagnosis and differential diagnosis.

2. Endocrine examination: Since most pituitary tumors have the function of secreting hormones, when the clinical manifestations are not obvious and imaging cannot indicate the presence of a tumor, the hormones of the pituitary tumor have already changed. Some pituitary tumor cases can be diagnosed simply by endocrine testing. For example, in most cases of ACTH cell adenoma, the tumor cannot be seen from imaging. Rare displaced pituitary tumors are located in the chest cavity, abdominal cavity and other parts, and are mainly diagnosed based on endocrine.

3. Pathological examination: This is the most reliable diagnostic method with a very low misdiagnosis rate. Pathological diagnosis is based on ordinary slices of HE staining and light microscopy observation. This surgery can only be used as a gross diagnosis and cannot distinguish the type of tumor.