Histopathological features of post-mortem pituitaries: A retrospective analysis

As a result of the use of neuroimaging techniques, silent pituitary lesions are diagnosed more and more frequently; however, there are few published post-mortem studies about this gland. Incidence data of pituitary lesions are rare and in Portugal they are outdated or even non-existent. The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence of normal patterns and incidental post-mortem pituitary pathology at Centro Hospitalar Lisboa Norte, analyzing the associations with clinical data and assessing the clinical relevance of the findings.

We reviewed retrospectively and histologically 167 pituitaries of a consecutive series of autopsies from the Department of Pathology of this centre. They were done between 2012 and 2014, and in all cases medical records were reviewed. The morphological patterns observed, were classified into three major groups: 1) Normal histological patterns and variants; 2) Infectious-inflammatory pathology, metabolic and vascular disorders; 3) Incidental primary proliferation and secondary to systemic diseases.

The subjects included in this study were of all age groups (from 1 day to 91 years old), 71 were female and 96 male. Fifty-seven of these glands didn't show any alteration; 51 showed colloid cysts arising from Rathke cleft; 44 presented hyperplasia in adenohypophysis and we identified 20 adenomas in 19 glands (immunohistochemically, eight PRL-producing and five ACTH-producing tumors), ten of which associated with obesity, 11 to hypertension and six to diabetes mellitus. There were two cases with metastasis.

Subclinical pathology in our country is similar to that seen in other parts of the world, but at older ages.