Prevalence of Post-Mortem Incidental Pituitary Pathology - A Pathological Study

Background: Disorders of pituitary gland can results in dysfunction of the endocrine system. The normal and variations in histology need to be studied in order to find the abnormalities in the pituitary gland. This study is to asses prevalence of normal variations in histology and incidental pathologies of pituitary gland. The primary objective is to find out the prevalence of pituitary pathologies and variations in normal histology.Methods: Present study is a prospective study conducted in the department of Pathology, from 2020 to 2022. 104 pituitary glands were collected from consecutive autopsies. Histopathological examinations are done and findings are evaluated and categorized. Prevalence is calculated statistically.Results: 104 glands are studied in this study. 83.6% of glands had no abnormalities which are histologically significant. Most common findings were fibrosis (33.6%), cyst in the intermediate lobe (16.4%), amyloid deposition (7.6%), congestion (22.1%) and basophil invasion (18.2%). 3.8% glands had microadenoma and 4.8% had pituitary hyperplasia.Conclusion: The prevalence of pituitary histological variations in this study is comparable with other autopsy-based populations. However, the prevalence of incidental microadenoma (3.8%, 4/104) was significantly lower than reported by Fernandez et al. (11.5%, 19/165; p = 0.028) and the Aljabri et al (46.4%, n = 537; p < 0.0001). Similarly, the prevalence of pituitary hyperplasia (4.8%, 5/104) was significantly lower than reported by Fernandez et al. (26.3%, 44/167; p < 0.0001).