Immunohistochemical Study of Pituitary Adenomas Comparing with Clinical Presentations in 102 Paraffin Blocked Specimens

Routine classification of pituitary adenomas is not appropriate for diagnosis of adenoma type and in some cases there is inconcordance between clinical presentation and histological type of adenoma. The aim of this study was to determine the type of adenoma secretion based on immunohistochemical staining. 102 paraffin blocked specimens of pituitary adenoma were stained with hormone markers of TSH, PRL, FSH, LH, GH and ACTH by immunoperoxidase method. Clinical presentations of patients were collected from hospital records and then were compared with histological type of adenoma. Age range of the patients was 10-67 years(mean=39.25) with female to male ratio of 10 to 7. 26.5% of pituitary adenomas were nonfunctional, 14.7% GH secreting, 0.8% PRL secreting, 4.9% ACTH producing, 2% TSH secreting and 48.1% plurihormonal. The relationship between acidophilic adenoma and GH and PRL secretion was significant. Also, there was a significant association between basophilic adenoma and ACTH secretion and chromophobe adenoma and GH and PRL secretion(P<0.05). No significant association was seen between other adenomas and secretions. On the whole, because of no significant association between most of hormonal secretions and morphologic type of pituitary adenomas in hematoxilin eosin staining, immunohistochemical staining seems to be necessary for definite diagnosis and appropriate treatment of pituitary adenomas.