Ranking of dynamic magnetic resonance imaging in the diagnosis of pituitary microadenomas

Purpose: To evaluate dynamic MR imaging of the pituitary gland. Material and methods: 19 patients with suspected mass lesions of the pituitary gland were examined at 1.5 Tesla with dynamic and standard MRI using a Turbo-FLASH sequence (1 image/s for 40s). Results: In 13/19 patients microadenomas were detected. One of the 13 microadenomas was detected using dynamic imaging and was not seen on standard MRI. The remaining 12 microadenomas were diagnosed with standard MRI. Conclusion:Dynamic imaging of the pituitary gland is a time-consuming and costly diagnostic technique, if laboratory results suggest the presence of a microadenoma and conventional MRI is unable to localise it, dynamic imaging should be performed.