Study on magnetic resonance imaging determination of normal pituitary gland size in mongolian population

Abstract

Background: Changes are seen in size, shape and signal intensity of the pituitary gland which reflects the changes in the complex hormonal physiology of the gland in children and adults, there are differences between males and females. There are borderline pituitary abnormalities encountered such as physiological hypertrophy of the gland, pituitary other tumors and inflammatory diseases. The height of the pituitary gland is the most important clinically, and if it is more than 1 cm, it is considered a macroadenoma, and if it is less than, it is considered a microadenoma. Role of MRI can be the diagnosis and prognosis of the abnormalities of the pituitary gland. There has been no study of the size of the pituitary gland by MRI in our country. Aim: To establish normative size of pituitary gland Materials and Methods: In this study, we measured the size of the pituitary gland in 636 (432 females and 204 males) Mongolian subjects (between 0 and 86 years) with apparently normal pituitary gland function. This study which spanned from May 2022 to September 2022, was conducted at the Mongolian-Japanese Hospital of MNUMS, Medportal clinic, and Third State Central Hospital. Permission from the institutional ethics committee of MNUMS was obtained before starting the study. All Patients with pituitary abnormalities or pituitary tumors have been excluded from the study). The statistical analysis has done using Microscoft excel and SPSS software version 22. Results: The overall mean pituitary width, height, length, and volume were 10.21±1.4 mm, 5.96±1.0 mm, 14.44±2.2 mm, and 461.08±138.2 mm3. Mean height and calculated volume of pituitary gland was not significantly higher in females compared to males (p=0.099, p=0.820). The pituitary height was maximum in the 11-20 years age group. The pituitary volume was maximum in the 21-30 years age group. The mean height and volume of the pituitary gland in female patients of each group were greater than that of male patients in the same age group. Conclusion: We have studied in Mongolian subjects for the size of the normal pituitary gland. Dimensions of the pituitary gland are different with age and gender. Female pituitary height and volume were greater than males in all age groups. Maximum values were seen in the 11-20 years age group. The increase in pituitary height during puberty might be related to the hormone change.