Tricks and Traps in MRI of the Pituitary Region

J.-F. Bonneville is a Professor of Neuroradiology, former Head of the Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Neuroradiology at the University Hospital of Besançon, France. He is presently an Invited Professor in the Departments of Endocrinology and Medical Imaging at the University Hospital of Liège, Belgium. Professor Bonneville has been involved in imaging of the pituitary region since he was a fellow at the Hospital of Pitié Salpetrière in Paris. He is the author of more than 200 peer review papers, 80 being solely devoted to CT and MRI of the pituitary gland and of three major books, Radiology of the Sella Turcica, Computed Tomography of the Pituitary Gland and MRI of the Pituitary Gland, considered at the time as three essential references.

Professor Bonneville is well known for his original approach to the diagnosis of patients suspected of pituitary diseases, in closely combining clinical, biological and imaging data. He is recognized all over the world as an undisputed expert in the field of MRI of the Pituitary Gland.

Remember the useful radio-anatomy of the sellar region.- Select the proper consequences according to the clinical situation.- Recognize the normal variants.- The poorly known posterior lobe.- Observe the sphenoidal sinus.- Internal carotid arteries and venous environment.- Elucidate the artefacts.- What to do in children with growth deficit or puberty troubles?.- In case of hyperprolactinemia.- What do do in fron of an incidentaloma?.- Acromegaly is suspected.- Detect an adenoma responsible for Cushing's Disease.- The things to look at when a macroadenoma is diagnosed.- Is the cavernous sinus really invaded?.- Differential diagnosis of pituitary macroadenomas.- How to manage the follow-up of prolactinomas?.- Pituitary hemorrhage or pituitary apoplexy?.- Is this tumor aggressive?.- How to overcome the difficulties of pituitary post-operative MRI.- Rathke's cleft cyst or pituitary adenoma?.- Pituitary stalk: normal, thickened, or atrophic?.- Some fascinating rare pituitary diseases.