Pituitary adenomas in childhood.

Pituitary adenomas are common tumors composed of adenohypophysial cells.Although they usually arise in the sella turcica, they may occasionally be ectopic. Pituitary adenomas are rarely diagnosed in childhood and adolescence, but their mass effect and endocrine abnormalities can compromise both quality and length of life. Many signs or symptoms of pituitary adenoma, complained of in adulthood, not became evident during adolescence, suggesting true prevalence of this tumor in teenagers is higher than expected. Pititury adenoma occuring during adolescence are associated with features or therapeutic needs sometimes different from those occuring in adulthood. At the onset of disease, delay in growth was rarely observed in teenagers with pituitary adenomas. Many girls complain of oligoamenorrhoea and galactorrhoea, while headache and delay in pubertal development are the most commons features in boys. Hypopituitarism is occasionally encountered in adolescence. Early diagnosis and appropriate choice of therapy are necessary to avoid permanent endocrine complications of disease and its treatment.

Assessment of utility of Siriraj Stroke Score (SSS) in stroke patients of Pt. BD Sharma PGIMS hospital, Rohtak, India.

India has predominantly poor rural population where brain CT scan, most often advised investigation in patients of stroke, may not always be available, hence Indian physician in such setting base his diagnosis on bed side sign evaluation for which Siriraj Stroke Score (SSS) could be helpful. Objective of study: to assess the utility of SSS in patients of stroke. Methodology: sixty subjects of stroke were evaluated on SSS and 'probable' diagnosis so made was compared with CT scan's (brain) 'certain' diagnosis. Main findings: by using SSS, the probable bedside diagnosis was cerebral infarct (score < -1) in 32 subjects and cerebral haemorrhage (score > +1) in 24 subjects while 4 subjects had indeterminant score (-1 to +1). Fifty subjects had their probable diagnosis matched with brain CT scan certain diagnosis. The above findings showed that SSS had 93.7% sensitivity, 76.6% specificity, 81.2% positive predictive value, 92% negative predictive value with an overall accuracy as 93.7% for diagnosis of cerebral infarction. For patients of cerebral haemorrhage the sensitivity was 83.3%, specificity was 92.5%, positive predictive value was 86.9%, negative predictive values was 92.5% with overall accuracy as 83.3%. Principal conclusion: physicians in the rural settings may find SSS to be quite useful in the management of stroke especially where more sophisticated radiological investigations may not be available for confirmation of diagnosis due to high cost or attended due to transportation risk.