A CASE OF AUTOIMMUNE HYPOPHYSITIS ASSOCIATED WITH ASYMPTOMATIC PRIMARY BILIARY-CIRRHOSIS

We report a 61-year old male patient with panhypopituitarism complicat ed with asymptomatic primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC). T1-weighted magn etic resonance imaging demonstrated high intensity of the anterior pit uitary gland. There was no mass lesion or enlargement of the pituitary gland or the stalk. Immunoblot analysis of the patient's sera with ra t pituitary antigens revealed a band with a molecular size of 22 kD. A nti-M-2 mitochondrial antibody has been consistently positive far five years. Liver biopsy revealed portal hepatitis with periportal infiltr ation of the inflammatory cells. This is the first case report of auto immune hypophysitis complicated with asymptomatic PBC.