Article Figures & Data
Figures
- Fig 1.
Pituitary R2 calculation. Left: Sagittal spin-echo image obtained at TE 15 ms. The pituitary gland is highlighted by the white box in the first image. Middle: Signal-intensity-decay curve calculated from a region of interest including the entire anterior pituitary. Solid line represents a fit to a monoexponential without constant offset correction. Right: R2 histogram of R2 values derived for every pixel in the anterior pituitary region of interest. Median pixelwise R2 corresponds to a T2 value of 88.9, which is within 1.1% of values calculated from a nonpixelwise technique.
- Fig 2.
Pituitary volume imaging. Coronal images from the volumetric spoiled gradient-echo image acquisition, arranged from posterior to anterior (left to right and top to bottom). Every second section is shown. The bottom-right panel represents a posteroinferior−right lateral view of a 3D rendering of the pituitary gland by using level-based thresholding and limited manual excision to separate the pituitary gland from adjacent structures; the optic chiasm is shown for reference.
- Fig 3.
Sagittal R2 as a function of age. R2 increases roughly 1 Hz every 30 years and is sex-independent. Outlier with R2 of 17.6 (not shown) and 2 other outliers (circled) are excluded from the linear regression; the remaining subjects are normally distributed. Historical norms7 are indicated by the crossed solid lines.
- Fig 4.
Anterior pituitary volume as a function of age. Males are shown on the left and females on the right. Data are well-described by piecewise linear regression formulas, with a hinge point at 18 years of age. Data are normally distributed but require outlier exclusion (circles). Historic norms for children <10 years of age 15 are indicated by the solid lines.
- Fig 5.
Clinical use of normative data. Anterior pituitary volume and pituitary R2 trends are shown for 2 patients with thalassemia major. These trends are during a 2-year period. One patient (O) was compliant with chelation and showed improvement of pituitary R2 and volume z scores. The other patient (X) was less compliant, and pituitary R2 and anterior pituitary volume z scores worsened.
Tables
Age Range (yr) Sex Height (cm) Weight (kg) BSA (m2) BMI (kg/m2) 0–10 14 F; 12 M 125.3 ± 20.1 23.6 ± 8.6 0.9 ± 0.2 15.7 ± 3.2 10–20 16 F; 17 M 164.0 ± 12.6 63.4 ± 23.4 1.7 ± 0.4 23.2 ± 7.0 20–30 11 F; 12 M 171.8 ± 11.1 70.4 ± 16.7 1.8 ± 0.3 23.5 ± 3.2 30–40 5 F; 5 M 170.1 ± 12.9 82.5 ± 16.0 2.0 ± 0.2 28.5 ± 4.9 40–50 5 F; 3 M 169.8 ± 14.2 78.7 ± 15.9 1.9 ± 0.3 27.2 ± 3.6 -
Note:—BSA indicates body surface area; BMI, body mass index.
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Pediatric Adult Mean SD Mean SD Males Anterior volume (mm3) 27.5 A + 69.7 94.4 586.1–1.19 A 94.4 Posterior volume (mm3) 5.66 A + 30.9 21.8% 152.6–1.1 A 37 Total volume (mm3) 33.6 A + 95.8 98 756.6–2.81 A 98 Sagittal R2 (Hz) 0.0331 A + 10.7 0.88 Same Same Females Anterior volume (mm3) 29.3 A + 116.9 101.5 659-.816 A 101.5 Posterior volume (mm3) 1.59 A + 60 22.5 0.96 A + 71.3 22.5 Total volume (mm3) 32.2 A + 171.5 106.5 795–1.84 A 106.5 Sagittal R2 (Hz) 0.0331 A + 10.7 0.88 Same Same Volume estimates Average height 0.142 A + 3.21 0.65 6.17–0.0219 A 0.65 5/6 Area-length (ant.) 28.9 A + 54.7 91.6 586.1–0.668 A 91.6 5/6 Area-length (total) 33.8 A + 150.1 112.6 798.1–2.24 A 112.6 -
Note:—A indicates age in years; ant., anterior.
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