Magnetic Resonance Imaging Findings of Hypophysis in Patients with End Stage Renal Disease

In order to evaluate the morphological findings of hypophysis with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in patients with end stage renal disease (ESRD), we examined the hypophyseal MRI (1.0 T magnetic field) results of 49 patients with ESRD of any underlying cause. Age, etiology and duration of chronic renal failure, time on hemodialysis therapy, hypothalamo-hypophyseal, adrenal, gonadal and thyroidal hormone profiles of the patients were recorded. Twenty-five females (51%) and 24 males (49%) with a mean age of 41.6 ± 12.3 years were held. Etiologies of renal failure were tubulointerstitial pathology in 28.6% (n=14), glomerulopathy in 36.7% (n=18), unidentified in 34.7% (n=17). Mean duration of ESRD was 78.6 ± 50.8 months. Hypophyseal MRI revealed pituitary adenoma in 20.4% (n=10), heterogenous pituitary parenchyme in 12.2% (n=6) and empty sella in 16.3% (n=8) of all cases. About 51.1% (n=25) of the patients had normal MRI reports. These findings exhibited no significant correlation with regard to age, gender, etiology of renal failure, mean duration of renal failure, time on dialysis therapy and pituitary hormone profiles (p>0.05). The detected parenchymal abnormalities may be the result of complex metabolic derangements encountered in uremic patients and needs to be clarified with more detailed studies.