Postgrad Med J 2001;77:530-531
( August )
Self assessment questions
An unusual pituitary mass presenting with panhypopituitarism and
hyponatraemia
S U Pitalea, J M Leeb, T Origitanoc, N V Emanuelea
a Loyola University
Medical Center, Maywood, Illinois, USA: Division of Endocrinology, b Department of Pathology, c Department of Neurosurgery
Correspondence to: Dr Shailesh U Pitale, Division of
Endocrinology, Building 117, Room 11, Loyola University Medical Center,
2160 South First Avenue, Maywood, IL 60153, USA
spitale@luc.edu
Submitted 20 December
1999;
Accepted 22 March 2000
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
A 72 year old Asian man was transferred to
our institution for work-up of hyponatraemia and an intrasellar mass.
At an outside hospital, the patient presented with a fever of
40oC (104oF) and mental status changes. The
patient had been exposed to ill children and reported symptoms of upper
respiratory tract infection a week before presentation. On admission to
the outside hospital, he had a serum sodium of 133 mmol/l which
decreased to 125 mmol/l with onset of mental confusion. Lumbar puncture findings were normal. Computed tomography of the head done at that
point showed a 2.1 cm sellar mass with suprasellar extension, elevating
the optic chiasm (fig 1). His fever resolved after treatment with
azithromycin. His mental status markedly improved after intravenous infusion of saline and a single dose of hydrocortisone 100 mg given
intravenously.
| Figure Removed (Available Only in the Full Text) |
On admission to our hospital, his pulse was 80 beats/min, blood
pressure 140/88 mm Hg, temperature 37.3o. . . [Full text of this article]