Lymphocytic adenohypophysitis. A review and a case

An unconscious, 29-year-old woman was taken to hospital where, 28 hours after admission, she succumbed to an intractable shock. Autopsy disclosed a lymphocytic adenohypophysitis (LAH). Judged by experiments on animals and by antibody examinations in women during puerpera, LAH is probably an autoimmune disease belonging to a group of autoimmune endocrinopathies, from which one or more is seen with LAH. The description of the present case is accompanied by a description of the disease in eight cases, all women; in only one patient was the diagnosis not made by autopsy. The patients can be divided into two groups, one group consisting of postmenopausal women, another who all became ill approximately one year after giving birth. It is suggested that this histopathological diagnosis also has a clinical significance.