rss
BMJ Case Reports 2016; doi:10.1136/bcr-2016-216186

Pituitary apoplexy complicated by vasospasm and bilateral cerebral infarction

  1. Piero Floridi2
  1. 1Department of Radiology, Surgical and Biomedical Sciences, Division of Radiology 2, Perugia University, Perugia, Italy
  2. 2Department of Neuroradiology, Santa Maria della Misericordia Hospital, Perugia, Italy
  1. Correspondence to Dr Giulio Gambaracci, giulio.gambaracci{at}libero.it
  • Accepted 8 June 2016
  • Published 21 June 2016

Description

Pituitary apoplexy (PA) is a clinical syndrome caused by acute haemorrhage or infarction of the pituitary gland, generally within a pituitary adenoma, and manifests as visual impairment, severe headache, meningeal irritation, consciousness disturbance and hormonal dysfunction.1 Cerebral infarction secondary to arterial vasospasm is an extremely rare complication of PA, and only a few cases have been reported.2 ,3

A 55-year-old postmenopausal woman was admitted to the emergency department, with worsening headache and decreased visual acuity. An unenhanced CT scan detected a 3 cm pituitary mass without signs of subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH). Two days later, she developed fever (39.1°C), and a second CT …

[Full text of this article]

This Article

  1. Extract
  2. Full text
  3. PDF

Responses

  1. Submit a response
  2. No responses published

Social bookmarking

Register for free content

The full text of all Editor's Choice articles and summaries of every article are free without registration

The full text of Images in ... articles are free to registered users

Only fellows can access the full text of case reports (apart from Editor's Choice) - become a fellow today, or encourage your institution to, so that together we can grow and develop this resource

Don't forget to sign up for content alerts so you keep up to date with all the case reports as they are published, and let us know what you think by commenting on the Editor's blog

Navigate This Article