RANKING OF MR TOMOGRAPHY AFTER TRANSSPHEN OIDAL RESECTION OF THE PITUITARY - RETROSPECTIVE COMPARISON BETWEEN ENDOCRINOLOGY, SURGERY AND MRT

Postoperative magnetic resonance images of 40 patients after transsphe noidal surgery for pituitary adenoma were evaluated retrospectively. T he signal intensities of packing material and residual tumour were ana lysed. T1-weighted spin-echo sequences were obtained in coronal and sa gittal views with and without intravenous injection of contrast media. Residual tumour demonstrated homogeneous or inhomogeneous signal inte nsity on the native scan with homogeneous or inhomogeneous enhancement . Packing material demonstrated a homogeneous signal intensity on the images obtained without injection of contrast media with a peripheral enhancement or alternate layers of low and intermediate signal intensi ty with alternate enhancement after injection of contrast media. In 5 of 54 examinations different results were found in MRI, endocrinology and surgery (two false negative and one false positive MRI in correlat ion with endocrinology; two residual tumours on MRI where surgery was supposed to be complete). Application of intravenous contrast media fa cilitates the interpretation of postoperative examination of the pitui tary gland as well as comparison with preoperative examinations and th e knowledge of the intraoperative procedure.