What diseases are easily confused with pituitary tumors

In our usual comfortable life, some people are often busy with work and life and neglect their own bodies, which causes some diseases. Most of the diseases cannot be discovered in the early stages. Even if patients feel something is wrong with their bodies, they will often mistake it for another disease. Pituitary tumors, as the most common tumors in the brain, are often confused with some diseases. Let me tell you which diseases pituitary tumors are easily confused with.

(1) Craniopharyngioma: It can occur in all age groups, but is more common in children and adolescents. Childhood tumors that occur in the sella turcica often cause hypopituitarism, dwarfism, and sexual dysplasia. When they grow above the sella turcica, they can cause hypothalamic syndrome (such as diabetes insipidus, lethargy, etc.) and optic nerve chiasm compression symptoms. X-rays show enlarged sella turcica. The main symptom of the suprasellar type is increased intracranial pressure caused by obstruction of the interventricular foramen of the third ventricle; lateral views of the sella turcica show that the sella turcica is flattened. Lateral views of the skull often show shadows of calcification points.

(2) Meningioma: tuberculum sellae meningioma is more common in adult women. The sella turcica is enlarged, and there may be bone hyperplasia on the tuberculum sellae or the plane of the sphenoid bone. The endocrine symptoms are not obvious, mainly headache and symptoms of optic nerve compression, such as decreased vision and changes in visual field. If the olfactory groove meningioma develops backward, it can compress the optic nerve chiasm and cause visual and visual field defects, but at the same time there may be olfactory disorders, sometimes accompanied by increased intracranial pressure. Cerebral angiography can show typical changes such as compression, elevation, displacement and tumor staining of the anterior cerebral artery.

(3) Aneurysm: Internal carotid artery aneurysm can compress one optic nerve, causing optic atrophy, visual impairment, and unilateral nasal hemianopsia. There may also be symptoms of compression of the oculomotor nerve and the first branch of the trigeminal nerve. Generally, there are no endocrine symptoms or sella turcica changes, but occasionally the sella turcica may be enlarged, and cerebral angiography is required to confirm the diagnosis.

(4) Changes in the sella turcica due to increased intracranial pressure: The sella turcica may be spherically enlarged, with destruction and absorption of the dorsum sellae, but the chiasmatic groove is usually flat and low, the anterior clinoid process is not deformed, and the dorsum sellae is usually not erected backwards. In addition, there are often other signs of increased intracranial pressure. Sometimes there may be mild endocrine symptoms clinically.

(5) Skull base arachnoiditis: There is often a history of intracranial inflammation, trauma, syphilis or tuberculosis. Clinically, there may be decreased vision and visual field defects, but the visual field changes are often atypical and asymmetrical, and sometimes show irregular concentric shrinkage.

(6) Empty sella: There may be optic chiasm compression and mild hypopituitarism. The sella is often enlarged and spherical, which is particularly difficult to distinguish from spherical pituitary tumors. CT scan or MRI of the head can help with the differentiation.

Through the above, can you now distinguish pituitary tumors from other diseases? We must make careful judgments, otherwise we will make big mistakes.