title: Magnetic resonance characterization of a long-standing pituitary abscess.
abstract: A 56-year-old male patient with panhypopituitarism is presented. Magnetic resonance (MR) examination of the pituitary region revealed a pituitary mass with markedly increased signal intensity on T1-weighted images and low signal intensity on T2-weighted images. At surgery, a large amount of purulent material was removed. At light microscopy, the tissue was demonstrated to be a pituitary abscess occurring in an otherwise normal pituitary gland. The high signal intensity on T1-weighted images does not correspond to the only MR description of a pituitary abscess given until now, reporting a mass isointense to white matter. These signal characteristics could emanate from the presence of small amounts of blood breakdown products in the proteinaceous content of the abscess. MR appearance of a pituitary abscess is possibly aspecific and could depend on the pathological composition of the lesion.
authors.affiliation: Department of Endocrinology, University of Antwerp, Wilrijk, Belgium.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Abs
authors.forename: P M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Parizel
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Verlooy
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Neetens
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Arnouts
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001922:Brain Abscess / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D010900:Pituitary Diseases / Q000473:pathology*