Sella Turcica Size in Women with Sheehan Syndrome-A Case-Control Study

Bashir Ahmad Laway; Atul Sharma; Naseer Ahmad Choh; Feroze Shaheen; Arshad Iqbal Wani

doi:10.4103/ijem.ijem_316_22

Sella Turcica Size in Women with Sheehan Syndrome-A Case-Control Study

Indian J Endocrinol Metab. 2023 Sep-Oct;27(5):431-435. doi: 10.4103/ijem.ijem_316_22. Epub 2023 Jun 30.

Authors

Bashir Ahmad Laway¹, Atul Sharma¹, Naseer Ahmad Choh², Feroze Shaheen², Arshad Iqbal Wani¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Endocrinology, Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, Soura, Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India.
² Department of Radio Diagnosis and Imaging, Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, Soura, Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India.

Abstract

Introduction: Sheehan syndrome is a common cause of hypopituitarism in developing countries. Among risk factors, in addition to post-partum haemorrhage, a smaller sellar volume is also believed to predispose to pituitary necrosis. Some earlier studies have reported smaller sellar volume in these patients but involved a small number of patients and lacked matched controls. The main of the present study was to study the sellar volume in a large cohort of patients with Sheehan syndrome and compare it with age- and parity-matched controls.

Methods: Fifty women with Sheehan syndrome and an equal number of age- and parity-matched controls were studied. Baseline investigations, relevant hormonal assay, and MRI of pituitary were studied in all.

Results: Sellar volume was significantly lower in patients with Sheehan syndrome (334.50 ± 129.08 mm³ in patients as against 456.64 ± 169.25 mm³ in controls, P = 0.000). Far more women with Sheehan syndrome than controls had decreased sellar volume (40% vs. 12%).

Conclusions: Patients with Sheehan syndrome have a smaller sellar volume that may be a non-modifiable risk factor for the development of post-partum pituitary necrosis.

Keywords: Hypopituitarism; MRI; Sheehan syndrome; post-partum haemorrhage; sellar size.