Idiopathic granulomatous hypophysitis

Neurosurg Focus. 1996 Jul 15;1(1):e7. doi: 10.3171/foc.1996.1.6.8.

Abstract

A case is described of an elderly woman who presented with headaches, hypopituitarism, and visual disturbances and was found to have idiopathic granulomatous hypophysitis, a rare lesion of the pituitary gland. Preoperative magnetic resonance imaging demonstrated a well-circumscribed lesion, which was isointense on both T1- and T2-weighted imaging and enhanced uniformly with administration of gadolinium contrast enhancement, not unlike a macroadenoma. The present case and 12 other cases from the literature are reviewed.