Evaluation of pituitary gland dimensions by age and gender in healthy individuals in the Turkish population

Abstract

Aim: Evaluating pituitary gland dimensions in varying age ranges and genders is essential for determining average values in MRI examinations. Therefore, the main objective of our study is to create normative data for pituitary gland size in the Turkish population. Material and Method: Anteroposterior (AP), transverse (TR), and craniocaudal (CC) dimensions of the pituitary glands of 200 patients over 18 years of age, who underwent Brain MRI examination in our centre between November 2022 and March 2023, did not have any known endocrine disease, did not use hormonal therapy, were not pregnant or breastfeeding, had no history of radiotherapy or chemotherapy were measured from their sagittal and axial MRI sequences. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was used for normality analyses. The Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare the non-normally distributed numerical variables between the two groups. Spearman correlation was applied to determine the relationship between age and pituitary gland measurement values. Results: Anteroposterior and craniocaudal measurements of the pituitary gland of female patients included in the study were significantly higher than males (p=0.011 and p