Early diagnosis and postoperative follow-up of 50 Chinese children with craniopharyngioma

BACKGROUND: Craniopharyngioma is a relatively common congenital intracranial tumor for children. But only few available studies focused on the endocrine evaluation before diagnosis and postoperative endocrine evaluations of children with craniopharyngioma. The aim of this study was to aid in the early diagnosis of craniopharyngioma (CP) and follow-up postoperative children suffered from craniopharyngioma.METHODS: Craniopharyngioma patients, as the CP group (N.=50), and healthy children, as the control group (N.=30), the symptoms and pituitary hormone levels were reviewed and investigated.RESULTS: The preoperative levels of peak of GH, IGF-1, FT4, ACTH, COR and PRL of CP patients were significantly lower than those of the control group (all the P≤0.001). Levels of pituitary-hormones after surgery were significantly lower than both those before surgery and those of the control group (all the P≤0.001). HGH treatment could significantly improve the growth velocity of postoperative children (3.8±1.5 cm/year vs 13.0±3.4 cm/year for males, P≤0.001; 4.0±1.3 cm/year vs 12.7±1.8 cm/year for females, P≤0.001).CONCLUSIONS: Children presenting with endocrine disturbance symptoms combined with pituitary hormone deficits should be assessed by MRI to exclude craniopharyngioma earlier. Also, long-term follow-up study was very essential to craniopharyngioma survivors.