Thyroid-stimulating hormone pituitary adenomas: clinical characteristics, diagnosis and treatment

To study the clinical characteristics, diagnosis and surgical effects of thyroid-stimulating hormone pituitary adenomas (TSH-omas). The clinical data of 19 patients (14 female and 5 male) with TSH-omas were analyzed retrospectively in this study from January 2001 to December 2008. The patients ranged from 20 to 70 years old (average 40.5 years old) and had disease histories from 1 to 228 months (average 55 months). Among these patients, 15 of them complained of thyrotoxicosis symptoms, while the other 4 patients' symptoms were associated with headache and/or visual disturbance caused by the tumor mass effect. Initially, 12 of the 15 patients with thyrotoxicosis symptoms were misdiagnosed with Grave's disease. As a result 2 of them received (131) Iodine, and one received subtotal thyroidectomy. All of these patients underwent transsphenoidal microsurgery. Average follow-up period was 3.6 years (6 months-7 years). Pathological analysis of the surgical specimen showed pituitary adenoma in all patients, immunohis