The determination of the pituitary gland, optic chiasm, and intercavernous distance measurements in healthy subjects according to age and gender
Abstract
Background: This paper was undertaken to determine the morphometry of pituitary gland diameter, pituitary gland height, intercavernous distance, optic chiasm diameter and optic chiasm height in skulls of Turkish population aged between 18 and 60 years. Materials and methods: It was a retrospective study in which 292 subjects were included 187 females and 105 males, ranging from 18 up to 60 years. Subjects underwent brain magnetic resonance imaging in the Radiology Department. Statistical analysis was performed with SPSS 21.00 programme. ANOVA test, χ2 test, and Pearson correlation analysis were used to determine the relation and significance between measurements and age group. The p < 0.05 value was considered as significant. Results: The groups were divided into five groups according to age. The overall means and standard deviations of the measurements were: pituitary gland width, 13.09 ± 1.99 mm; pituitary gland height, 4.91 ± 1.10 mm; intercavernous distance, 15.93 ± 3.05 mm; optic chiasm width, 12.82 ± 1.27 mm; and optic chiasm height, 2.80 ± 0.49 mm in females, respectively whereas, the same measurements were 12.96 ± 1.74 mm; 4.79 ± 0.95 mm; 16.08 ± 3.11 mm; 13.13 ± 1.37 mm; 2.86 ± 0.70 mm in males, respectively. Height of the pituitary gland reached a maximum in the age group of 18 to 20 years in both females and males and there was a decrease in the pituitary gland height in the subsequent age groups. Conclusions: Knowledge of the variation in the size of pituitary gland, intercavernous distance and optic chiasm is important to evaluate the dimensions of these structures for clinical and pathological processes.
Keywords: pituitary glandoptic chiasmintercavernous distancemorphometry
References
- Argyropoulou M, Perignon F, Brunelle F, et al. Height of normal pituitary gland as a function of age evaluated by magnetic resonance imaging in children. Pediatr Radiol. 1991; 21(4): 247–249.
- Bilal D, Yousef M, Abukonna A, et al. Assessment of Optic Chiasm Measurements in Abnormal MRI Brain. IOSR J Dent Med Scien. 2018; 17(7): 50–56.
- Bughio S, Ali M, Mughal AM. Estimation of pituitary gland volume by magnetic resonance imaging and its correlation with sex and age. Pakistan J Radiol. 2017; 27(4): 304–308.
- Campero A, Campero AA, Martins C, et al. Surgical anatomy of the dural walls of the cavernous sinus. J Clin Neurosci. 2010; 17(6): 746–750.
- Chauhan P, Kalra S, Mongia S, et al. Morphometric analysis of sella turcica in North Indian population: a radiological study. Int J Res Med Scien. 2014; 2(2): 521.
- Denk CC, Onderoğlu S, Ilgi S, et al. Height of normal pituitary gland on MRI: differences between age groups and sexes. Okajimas Folia Anat Jpn. 1999; 76(2-3): 81–87.
- Ergun M, Hayran M, Demiyürek D, Bayramoğlu A. Anatomi. MN Medikal &Nobel Tıp Kitapevi, Ankara 2014.
- Farımaz M. Arteria carotis interna’nın pars cavernosa’sının morfometrik olarak değerlendirilmesi. Hacettepe Universitesi Sağlık Bilimleri Enstitüsü. Yüksek Lisans Tezi, Ankara 2016.
- Farımaz M, Çelik HH, Ergun KM, et al. The morphometry of the cavernous part of the internal carotid artery. Folia Morphol. 2018 [Epub ahead of print].
- Hoffmann J, Huppertz HJ, Schmidt C, et al. Morphometric and volumetric MRI changes in idiopathic intracranial hypertension. Cephalalgia. 2013; 33(13): 1075–1084.
- Ibinaiye PO, Olarinoye-Akorede S, Kajogbola O, et al. Magnetic Resonance Imaging Determination of Normal Pituitary Gland Dimensions in Zaria, Northwest Nigerian Population. J Clin Imaging Sci. 2015; 5: 29.
- Ikram MF, Sajjad Z, Shokh I, et al. Pituitary height on magnetic resonance imaging observation of age and sex related changes. J Pak Med Assoc. 2008; 58(5): 261–265.
- Ju KS, Bae HG, Park HK, et al. Morphometric study of the korean adult pituitary glands and the diaphragma sellae. J Korean Neurosurg Soc. 2010; 47(1): 42–47.
- Kato K, Saeki N, Yamaura A. Morphological changes on MR imaging of the normal pituitary gland related to age and sex: main emphasis on pubescent females. J Clin Neurosci. 2002; 9(1): 53–56.
- Kidd D. The optic chiasm. Clin Anat. 2014; 27(8): 1149–1158.
- Pansky B, Gest TR, Tüccar E. Lippincott Açıklamalı İnsan Anatomi Atlası: Baş ve Boyun. Cilt 3. Güneş Tıp Kitabevleri, Ankara 2015.
- Parravano JG, Toledo A, Kucharczyk W. Dimensions of the optic nerves, chiasm, and tracts: MR quantitative comparison between patients with optic atrophy and normals. J Comput Assist Tomogr. 1993; 17(5): 688–690.
- Romano A, Zuccarello M, van Loveren HR, et al. Expanding the boundaries of the transsphenoidal approach: a microanatomic study. Clin Anat. 2001; 14(1): 1–9, doi: 10.1002/1098-2353(200101)14:1<1::AID-CA1000>3.0.CO;2-3.
- Sakran AM, Khan MA, Altaf FMN, et al. A morphometric study of the sella turcica: gender effect. Int J Anat Res. 2015; 3(1): 927–34.
- Sanjay SC, Subbaramaiah M, Jagannatha SR. Variation in size and shape of a normal adult female pituitary gland: A radiological study. J Evolution Med Dent Sci. 2014; 3(18): 4934–4939.
- Schmitz B, Krick C, Kellner BK. Morphologie des Chiasm opticum bei Albinismus. Ophthalmologe. 2007; 104: 662–5.
- Sinclair J, Kanodia AK, Schembri N, et al. MRI Measurement of Normal Pituitary Size Using Volumetric Imaging in Scottish Patients. Curr Trends Clin Med Imag. 2017; 1(3).
- Singh AK, Thenmozhi MS. Morphology and morphometric study of hypophyseal fossa. Drug Invention Today. 2018; 10(12): 2342–2344.
- Singh AKC, Kandasamy D, Garg A, et al. Study of Pituitary Morphometry Using MRI in Indian Subjects. Indian J Endocrinol Metab. 2018; 22(5): 605–609.
- Snell RS. Yıldırım M, Topografik Klinik Anatomi. 9 Baskı Palme Yayıncılık, Ankara 2015.
- Suzuki M, Takashima T, Kadoya M, et al. Height of normal pituitary gland on MR imaging: age and sex differentiation. J Comput Assist Tomogr. 1990; 14(1): 36–39.
- Tsunoda A, Okuda O, Sato K. MR height of the pituitary gland as a function of age and sex: especially physiological hypertrophy in adolescence and in climacterium. AJNR Am J Neuroradiol. 1997; 18(3): 551–554.
- Ünlü E, Turamanlar O, Acay MB, et al. Assessment of the effect of age and gender on pituitary gland volume by magnetic resonance imaging. J Clin Analyt Med. 2015; 6(Suppl 4): 434–437.
- Venieratos D, Anagnostopoulou S, Garidou A. A new morphometric method for the sella turcica and the hypophyseal fossa and its clinical relevance. Folia Morphol. 2005; 64(4): 240–247.
- Wagner AL, Murtagh FR, Hazlett KS, et al. Measurement of the normal optic chiasm on coronal MR images. AJNR Am J Neuroradiol. 1997; 18(4): 723–726.
- Waugh A, Grant A. Ross AND. Wilson anatomy and physiology in health and illness. 11th Ed. Churchill Livingstone Elsevier, Toronto 2010.
- Wiener SN, Rzeszotarski MS, Droege RT, et al. Measurement of pituitary gland height with MR imaging. AJNR Am J Neuroradiol. 1985; 6(5): 717–722.
- Yadav P, Singhal S, Chauhan S, et al. MRI evaluation of size and shape of normal pituitary gland: age and sex related changes. J Clin Diagn Res. 2017.
- Yamashita S, Resende LA, Trindade AP, et al. A radiologic morphometric study of sellar, infrassellar and parasellar regions by magnetic resonance in adults. Springerplus. 2014; 3: 291.
- Zada G, Agarwalla PK, Mukundan S, et al. The neurosurgical anatomy of the sphenoid sinus and sellar floor in endoscopic transsphenoidal surgery. J Neurosurg. 2011; 114(5): 1319–1330.
