Evaluation of pituitary microadenomas with dynamic MR imaging.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the use of keyhole dynamic magnetic resonance (MR) imaging in the evaluation of women with borderline hyperprolactinemia.


METHODS
We investigated 30 patients (mean age 31.6+/-4.3 years) with moderate hyperprolactinemia and clinically suspected microadenomas on T1-weighted spin echo (SE) sequences (repetition time (TR)/echo time (TE) 625/15 ms) with keyhole dynamic imaging and contrast enhancement of the pituitary gland. The probability of lesion presence according to MR criteria was ranked on a five-grade scale and compared with standard examinations of the hypophysis before and after intravenous administration of contrast media.


RESULTS
The probability for lesion presence showed a trend toward lower scores on standard SE sequences and higher scores with dynamic imaging (P=0.067).


CONCLUSIONS
Dynamic keyhole imaging of the pituitary gland could help establish a diagnosis of microadenomas with a higher probability.
Rand
Thomas
T
Department of Radiology, University of Vienna, Währinger Gürtel 18-20, 1090 Vienna, Austria. thomas.rand@univie.ac.at
Lippitz
P
P
Kink
E
E
Huber
H
H
Schneider
B
B
Imhof
H
H
Trattnig
S
S
D000236:Adenoma / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis*; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006966:Hyperprolactinemia / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D010902:Pituitary Gland / Q000473:pathology; D010911:Pituitary Neoplasms / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis*