Pituitary apoplexy causing spontaneous remission of acromegaly following long-acting octreotide therapy: a rare drug side effect or just a coincidence.

Abstract

Pituitary apoplexy is characterized by abrupt onset of haemorrhage or non-haemorrhagic infarction of a pituitary adenoma. The clinical features include acute onset severe headache, visual field defects, meningeal irritation, ophthalmoplegia and hypopituitarism. The pituitary apoplexy may be clinically silent in ∼25% of patients. We report a case of acromegaly due to pituitary macroadenoma. The patient was started on long-acting octreotide therapy. On 3-month follow-up, the patient showed clinical and biochemical remission and the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain showed subclinical haemorrhage and resolution of tumour. The octreotide therapy was stopped. On 6-month follow-up, the patient was still in remission and the MRI of brain revealed non-enhancing mixed intensities haemorrhagic and cystic areas of the pituitary gland. In our patient, whether spontaneous remission of acromegaly due to subclinical pituitary haemorrhage was coincidental or due to long-acting octreotide therapy is still a dilemma. We report this case because of rarity and clinical importance of this unusual occurrence.

• Authors: Sunil Kumar, Shruti Sharma
• Journal: Oxford medical case reports (Oxf Med Case Reports) Vol. 2016 Issue 4 Pg. 81-3 (Apr 2016) ISSN: 2053-8855 [Print] England
• PMID: 27123308 (Publication Type: Case Reports)