Visual disturbances in patients with pituitary adenoma.
BACKGROUND
To clarify the relationship between visual disturbances caused by pituitary adenomas and the degree of chiasmal compression, MRI (1.5T) findings were assessed two dimensionally.


METHODS
50 cases of pituitary adenomas and 17 control cases were studied. The position of the optic chiasm was measured by the distance from the line of the frontal base and posterior clinoid process on the sagittal T1 weighted image, and from the upper surface of the bilateral internal carotid artery on the coronal T1 image.


RESULTS
Visual disturbances appeared when the chiasm was displaced to more than 8 mm above the aforesaid reference level on the sagittal image and more than 13 mm above on the coronal image. There was a good correlation between the appearance of visual field defects and the degree of chiasmal compression.


CONCLUSIONS
The degree of chiasmal displacement measured by MRI two dimensionally can provide useful information for predicting the appearance of visual disturbances.
D000236:Adenoma / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000473:pathology; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009897:Optic Chiasm / Q000503:physiopathology; D010902:Pituitary Gland / Q000473:pathology*; D010911:Pituitary Neoplasms / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000473:pathology; D014786:Vision Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology*; D014794:Visual Fields