HYPERTHYROIDISM IN A PATIENT WITH A PITUITARY CHROMOPHOBE ADENOMA AND A FRAGMENT OF NORMAL PITUITARY

Abstract

The case is presented of a 59-year-old woman who apparently died of hyperthyroidism. At autopsy a chromophobe pituitary adenoma was found which had destroyed all but about 5 per cent of the normal tissue of the anterior lobe. Two possibilities are suggested to account for this association of events. The first is that hyperthyroidism may arise and be sustained in the presence of a sharply decreased mass of, and presumably functional activity of, the anterior pituitary. The second is that some chromophobe adenomas in man may be functional and may release enough thyrotropin to produce hyperthyroidism.