Clinical characteristics of headache in pituitary adenomas

Abstract

Introduction: The prevalence of pituitary adenomas is 10.6%, most of them presenting with headache. Pituitary adenomas bear an important risk of generating severe consequences, such as endocrinological complications or pituitary apoplexy. Thus, highlighting clinical features of headache Associated with pituitary adenoma would provide invaluable information needed to enable the practicing physician to suspect this condition. Materials and methods:13 patients with pituitary adenomas were analysed. Data were collected regarding the clinical features of headache, the radiologic appearance of the tumour and its endocrine activity. Clinical features of heradache in piruitary adenomas were described, and a comparative analysis between the headache phenotype in micro- and macroadenomas was performed. Results:Our results showed that pituitary adenomas are Associated with headache which is moderate to severe in intensity (6.3 points) and frequent (5 days per week). At the same time, a higher frequency of migraine in the patients with microadenoma was found, while the proportion of tension type headache in the groups of patients with macro-and microadenoma was comparable. Conclusion:Our study provided some insights into the phenotypic characteristics of headache Associated with pituitary adenomas. We also found that migraine was more strongly Associated with an underlying microadenoma as a cause.