Diagnosis and Treatment > Intervention > Transcranial surgery

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Carlos Tavares Bello Endocrinology Department, Hospital de Egas Moniz, Lisbon, Portugal

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Patricia Cipriano
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Vanessa Henriques
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João Sequeira Duarte
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Conceição Canas Marques
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Summary

Granular cell tumours (GCT) are rare, slow-growing, benign neoplasms that are usually located in the head and neck. They are more frequent in the female gender and typically have an asymptomatic clinical course, being diagnosed only at autopsy. Symptomatic GCT of the neurohypophysis are exceedingly rare, being less than 70 cases described so far. The authors report on a case of a 28-year-old male that presented to the Endocrinology clinic with clinical and biochemical evidence of hypogonadism. He also reported minor headaches without any major visual symptoms. Further laboratory tests confirmed hypopituitarism (hypogonadotrophic hypogonadism, central hypothyroidism and hypocortisolism) and central nervous system imaging revealed a pituitary macroadenoma. The patient underwent transcranial pituitary adenoma resection and the pathology report described a GCT of the neurohypophysis with low mitotic index. The reported case is noteworthy for the rarity of the clinicopathological entity.

Learning points:

  • Symptomatic GCTs are rare CNS tumours whose cell of origin is not well defined that usually give rise to visual symptoms, headache and endocrine dysfunction.

  • Imaging is quite unspecific and diagnosis is difficult to establish preoperatively.

  • Surgical excision is challenging due to lesion’s high vascularity and propensity to adhere to adjacent structures.

  • The reported case is noteworthy for the rarity of the clinicopathological entity.

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Julian Choi Departments of Internal Medicine

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Perin Suthakar Neurology, Arrowhead Regional Medical Center, Colton, California, USA

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Farbod Farmand Departments of Internal Medicine

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Summary

We describe the case of a young Hispanic female who presented with thyrotoxicosis with seizures and ischemic stroke. She was diagnosed with a rare vasculopathy – moyamoya syndrome. After starting antithyroid therapy, her neurologic symptoms did not improve. Acute neurosurgical intervention had relieved her symptoms in the immediate post-operative period after re-anastomosis surgery. However, 2 post-operative days later, she was found to be in status epilepticus and in hyperthyroid state. She quickly deteriorated clinically and had expired a few days afterward. This is the second case in literature of a fatality in a patient with moyamoya syndrome and Graves’ disease. However, unlike the other case report, our patient had undergone successful revascularization surgery. We believe her underlying non-euthyroid state had potentiated her clinical deterioration. Case studies have shown positive correlation between uncontrolled hyperthyroidism and stroke-like symptoms in moyamoya syndrome. Mostly all patients with these two disease processes become symptomatic in marked hyperthyroid states. Thus, it may be either fluctuations in baseline thyroid function or thyrotoxicosis that potentiate otherwise asymptomatic moyamoya vasculopathy.

Learning points:

  • Awareness of the association between Graves’ disease and moyamoya syndrome in younger patients presenting with stroke-like symptoms.

  • Obtaining euthyroid states before undergoing revascularization surgery may protect the patient from perioperative mortality and morbidity.

  • Although moyamoya disease is usually thought to be genetically associated, there are reports that thyroid antibodies may play a role in its pathogenesis and have an autoimmune link.

  • Fluctuations in baseline thyroid function for patients with known Graves’ disease may be a potentiating factor in exacerbating moyamoya vasculopathy.

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Anne Soejbjerg Department of Internal Medicine, Silkeborg Regional Hospital, Silkeborg, Denmark

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Suzan Dyve Department of Neurosurgery, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark

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Steen Baerentzen Department of Pathology, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark

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Georg Thorsell Department of Hematology, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark

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Per L Poulsen Department of Endocrinology and Internal Medicine, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark

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Jens O L Jorgensen Department of Endocrinology and Internal Medicine, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark

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Ulla Kampmann Department of Endocrinology and Internal Medicine, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark

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Summary

Solitary sellar plasmacytomas are exceedingly rare and difficult to distinguish from other pituitary tumors. We report a case of a 62-year-old woman presenting with blurred vision of the right eye and tenderness of the right temporal region, which was interpreted as temporal arteritis. MRI revealed a pituitary mass lesion (20mm×14mm×17mm) without compression of the optic chiasm and her pituitary function was normal. Pituitary surgery was undertaken due to growth of the lesion, and histopathological examination showed a highly cellular neoplasm composed of mature monoclonal plasma cells. Subsequent examinations revealed no evidence of extrasellar myeloma. The patient received pituitary irradiation and has remained well and free of symptoms apart from iatrogenic central diabetes insipidus. Until now, only eight cases of solitary sellar plasmacytoma have been reported. Most frequent symptoms stem from compression of the cranial nerves in the cavernous sinus (III, IV, V), whereas the anterior pituitary function is mostly intact.

Learning points

  • A solitary plasmacytoma is a rare cause of a sellar mass lesion.

  • The radiological and clinical features are nonspecific, but cranial nerve affection and intact pituitary function are usually present.

  • The diagnosis is made histologically and has important therapeutic implications.

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