Review of Clinical Recommendations on Prolactinoma and Pregnancy

Prolactinomas are the most common hormone-secreting pituitary adenomas. Prolactinomas account for nearly 30-40 percent of all the pituitary adenomas. Although it affects individuals over a wide age range, it is more common in 20-40-year-old female patients, who are in their reproductive age. Prolactinomas may cause hypogonadism, menstrual cycle dysfunction (oligomenorrhea or amenorrhea) and infertility (luteal phase abnormalities or anovulation) in premenopausal women. When pregnancy is excluded, hyperprolactinemia in approximately 10 to 20 percent of the patients results in amenorrhea. Women with untreated pro-lactinomas are generally unable to achieve pregnancy, as the hyperprolactinemia affects the pulsatility of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) and diminishes follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) as well as luteinizing hormone (LH) secretion. The sum of these effects induces amenorrhea, infertility, and hypogonadism, thereby posing difficulties in fertility. Therefore, in most women prolactinoma is diagnosed prior to conception. However, ovulation and fertility usually improve after proper diagnosis and treatment of prolactinoma. Therefore, during the surveillance of these patients, the onset of pregnancy is a common phenomenon. Management of these pregnancies may sometimes be challenging and require a multidisciplinary approach involving an endocrinologist, a gynecologist, a radiologist and an experienced neurosurgeon in order to achieve the best outcomes both for the patient as well the infant. In this report, the authors aim to summarize the consensus statements and the current guidelines for clinical practice

IS THE AMOUNT OF WEIGHT LOSS AFTER BARIATRIC SURGERY A FACTOR DETERMINING CARDIOMETABOLIC RISK REDUCTION?

Objective: This study aimed to investigate whether differential weight loss amount appropriately reflects improvements in cardiometabolic health in patients undergoing bariatric surgery. Materials and Methods: Patients who underwent bariatric surgery (BS) and were followed up for six months were divided into three groups according to their weight loss (Group-1: Low weight loss; Group-2: Moderate weight loss; Group-3: High weight loss). Before and after surgery, patients were evaluated for metabolic syndrome (MetS) using waist circumference, blood pressure, glucose, HDL-C, and triglyceride data, and a clustered cardiometabolic risk (CMR) score was obtained for each patient using a calculator available in the literature online. Changes in each MetS criterion and CMR score in the groups before and after the operation, and their relations with each other were compared. Results: Sixty-six patients were included in the study. It was observed that the prevalence of MetS, which was 74.2% before the operation, decreased to 25.8%. A significant difference was observed between the groups in the decrease in weight, waist circumference, fat mass, fasting blood sugar, and HOMA-IR values. However, no significant difference was found between the groups in the change in MetS parameters and CMR scores. While a significant negative correlation was found between the amount of weight loss and the difference in the CMR score, no relation was observed between each MetS parameter and the amount of weight loss. It was also found that each 1% increase in weight loss was associated with a 57% decrease in the CMR score. Conclusion: Although there is a significant decrease in cardiometabolic risk parameters after bariatric surgery, the amount of weight loss of the patients does not affect the individual parameters. However, using a scoring system to evaluate and monitor patients' cardiometabolic cluster risks will make it possible to follow the gradual changes in patients after surgery, making interventions by physicians and nutritionists more targeted and efficient

Assessment of macroprolactinemia inpatients with prolactinoma

Purpose: Macroprolactin, the high-molecular mass prolactin isoform, is considered to be an inactive product with extrapituitary origin. Although macroprolactinemia is considered a benign condition, there is evidence of overlapping clinical features among patients with hyperprolactinemia. Data on the prevalence of macroprolactinemia in prolactinomas is also quite limited. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of macroprolactinemia in our patients with prolactinoma

Risk factors predicting the development of diabetes mellitus and metabolic syndrome following gestational diabetes mellitus

Background/aim: To determine risk factors associated with the development of insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), and metabolic syndrome (MetS) in gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) patients 10 years after giving birth

Nodular Thyroid Disease and Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma in Functional Pituitary Adenomas

Objective: Increased frequency of nodular thyroid disease has been reported in acromegalic patients. Recent studies have also demonstrated an increased co-existence of nodular thyroid disease with Cushing's disease and prolactinoma. In this study, we evaluated the frequency and outcomes of nodular thyroid disease in each type of functional pituitary adenoma

Calciphylaxis: A Report of Six Cases and Review of Literature

Calciphylaxis is usually a fatal condition that develops in a few chronic renal failure patients, and it is characterized by calcifications in subcutaneous arteries, infarcts in skin, and the neighboring subcutis. Calciphylaxis, once considered as a rare condition, has been reported to have an annual incidence of 1% and a prevalence of 4% in dialysis patients. We describe our clinical experience in six end-stage renal disease patients on dialysis that presented with calciphylaxis and died due to sepsis, and review the pathogenesis, epidemiology, clinical and histopathologic features, and treatment of calciphylaxis. Physicians should initially consider the possibility of calciphylaxis in case of development of skin lesions in chronic renal failure patients with impaired calcium, phosphorus, and parathyroid hormone levels. The most important cause of mortality in this condition is infection. Therefore, differential diagnosis of these lesions from systemic vasculitis in their early stages and withdrawal of immunosuppressive therapy that increases the tendency to infections are essential

Evaluation of the natural course of thyroid nodules in patients with acromegaly

PurposeTo investigate the nodular thyroid disease (NTD) and the natural course of thyroid nodules in patients with acromegaly.Methods138 patients with acromegaly (73F/65M), whose initial thyroid ultrasonography performed in our university hospital, were included in this study. The frequencies of NTD, papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) and associated factors on nodule formation were investigated at initial assessment. Patients who had NTD continued to follow-up (n=56) were re-evaluated with a ultrasonography performed after a mean 7-years follow-up period. The nodule size changes were compared with the initial data and the factors affecting nodule growth were investigated.ResultsThe frequency of NTD was found 69%. Patients with NTD were older (p=0.05), with higher baseline IGF-1%ULN (upper limit of normal) (p=0.01). In patients with NTD, the majority had similar nodule size (45%), decreased nodule size in 30% and nodule growth in 25%. In patients with active acromegaly at last visit, nodule growth was more significant (p<0.001). For one unit change in the IGF-1 levels, nodule growth increased by 1.01 folds and presence of active acromegaly disease was related with ninefolds increase in nodule growth. The frequency of PTC was 14% in patients with nodule growth and PTC was diagnosed 11% of all acromegalic patients.ConclusionBoth NTD and nodule growth is more frequent in active acromegalic patients. Thyroid nodules may show dynamic changes according to the disease activity and nodule growth should be closely monitored due to the risk of malignancy in patients with active acromegaly disease

Clinical Significance of Granulation Pattern in Corticotroph Pituitary Adenomas

Objective: The granulation pattern of pituitary tumors may be important to predict tumor behavior, treatment outcomes, and recurrences. Therefore, we compared densely granulated corticotroph tumor (DGCT) and sparsely granulated corticotroph tumor (SGCT) in terms of clinicopathologic findings

Clinicopathological significance of baseline T2-weighted signal intensity in functional pituitary adenomas

Purpose To assess baseline T2-weighted signal intensity (T2-WSI) of functional pituitary adenomas (FPA), and to investigate the relationship of baseline T2-WSI with clinical features, histopathological granulation patterns, and response to treatment in patients with acromegaly, prolactinoma and Cushing's disease (CD)