THE EVALUATION AND MANAGEMENT OF SUBCLINICAL PITUITARY DISEASE

The advent of sophisticated and sensitive radiologic techniques has un doubtedly improved the evaluation of patients with established endocri ne disease. An inevitable consequence of the increased sensitivity and widespread availability of modern imaging is, however, the discovery of apparently asymptomatic mass lesions in endocrine tissues. The clin ician is then required to determine the appropriate degree of often un comfortable and costly investigation in a patient with no overt diseas e. This article attempts to provide guidelines for the management of t he 'pituitary incidentaloma', a pituitary mass lesion evident on a com puted tomography or magnetic resonance imaging scan performed for a re ason other than the evaluation of the pituitary gland.