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Magnetic Resonance Imaging in the Evaluation and Characterisation of Sellar and Juxtasellar Lesions

BACKGROUND The sellar and juxtasellar region is a complex area where varied pathologies can occur. Differentiation among various pathologies may not always be easy, since many of these lesions mimic pituitary adenomas on clinical presentation, endocrinologic and radiologic examinations. The study intends to describe the imaging characteristics of the spectrum of pathological conditions affecting these regions using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). METHODS The main source of data for the study were patients from hospitals attached to Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute, Bengaluru viz. Victoria Hospital, Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital and Vani Vilas Hospital. Patients with suspected sellar and juxtasellar pathology on clinical examination referred to the Department of Radiodiagnosis from November 2017 to May 2019 underwent MRI study using Siemens 1.5-T Magnetom Avanto MR system. Magnetic resonance imaging was done in all patients according to the pituitary protocol. RESULTS Among the 50 patients, there were 16 males and 34 females. Most of the patients were in the third to fifth decade of life. The various abnormalities on MRI included neoplastic (68 %), malformative (8 %), vascular (6 %), granulomatous, infectious and inflammatory (18 %) lesions. Pituitary adenomas (46 %) were the most common lesions in sellar and juxtasellar regions, followed by tuberculosis (10 %), craniopharyngioma (8 %), Rathke's cleft cyst (6 %), meningioma (6 %), internal carotid artery (ICA) aneurysm (4 %), epidermoid (2 %) and miscellaneous lesions. CONCLUSIONS MR imaging characteristics were sufficiently distinct to allow various sellar and juxtasellar pathologies to be differentiated from each other. The spectrum of MRI findings were related to neoplastic, malformative, infectious, inflammatory, granulomatous and vascular causes. Our study observed that MRI with appropriate imaging protocols is the essential imaging modality in evaluation of sellar and juxtasellar lesions. KEYWORDS Pituitary, Sellar, Juxtasellar, Magnetic Resonance Imaging