title: 1.5-T MR imaging of pituitary microadenomas: technical considerations and CT correlation.
abstract: Thirty-seven patients with suspected pituitary tumors were evaluated prospectively with MR imaging at 1.5 T. MR detected a microadenoma at its correct location in all eight patients who underwent transsphenoidal surgery, while CT showed a focal abnormality in the correct location in only four of the eight patients. In patients who were clinically and endocrinologically considered to harbor a microadenoma, MR detected a focal pituitary signal abnormality in 83% and CT demonstrated a focal density abnormality in 42%. Infundibular displacement, focal gland convexity, and sellar-floor abnormality were seen equally well with CT and MR. MR imaging protocol included sagittal T1-weighted spin-echo, coronal inversion-recovery, and coronal spin-echo or cardiac-gated spin-echo images. Although inversion-recovery images were superior in detecting focal pituitary lesions, some microadenomas were better seen on T2-weighted images. Cardiac-gated spin-echo images showed focal pituitary lesions better than ungated images did. Our technique demonstrates MR's superior sensitivity to CT in detecting a pituitary microadenoma.
mesh_terms: D000236:Adenoma / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology*; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D010911:Pituitary Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology*; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed