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Pituitary (2013) 16:545553 DOI 10.1007/s11102-012-0454-0
Prevalence and incidence of pituitary adenomas: a population based study in Malta
Mark Gruppetta Cecilia Mercieca
Josanne Vassallo
Published online: 14 December 2012 Springer Science+Business Media New York 2012
Abstract Epidemiological data is important to correctly quantify the extent of disease and needed health care resources. The aim of the study was to establish the prevalence and incidence of pituitary adenomas (PAs) in the same well dened population, with in-depth analysis of the various subtypes. The design involved a retrospective cross-sectional analysis of PA patients diagnosed prior to31 July 2011 for prevalence estimates and those diagnosed between July 2000 and July 2011 for incidence estimation. A thorough search for patients with PAs was carried out in central hospital registries including outpatients departments, surgical registries, radiological department and specialty clinic databases. Prevalence rates/100,000 and Standardised incidence ratios (SIR)/100,000/year were worked out. The respective prevalence rates and SIR for PAs overall were 75.7/100,000, and 4.27/100,000/year, for Prolactinomas 35.0/100,000 and 2.05/100,000/year, for nonfunctioning PA 25.9/100,000 and 1.79/100,000/year and for GH-secreting PAs 12.5/100,000 and 0.31/100,000/ year. The overall prevalence for macroadenomas was 32.8/ 100,000 and SIR was 1.49/100,000/year. The prevalence rate in males for PAs overall was 46.3/100,000 and SIR was 2.08/100,000/year and in females 104.8/100,000 and SIR was 6.58/100,000/year. Females had a lower proportion of macroadenomas than males (29.5 vs. 75.0 %; P \ 0.001) and macroadenomas tended to present at a later
age compared to microadenomas (48 vs. 34.5; P \ 0.001). The highest SIR was reached in the 3039 age group at7.42/100,000/year. Our data conrm the considerable disease burden that PAs bear on health care resources. Males and females have similar prevalence and SIR rates for macroadenomas but there is a signicant increase in SIR in females of child bearing age compared to males. These observations may have important implications in terms of the economic burden and need for early intervention.
Keywords Prevalence Incidence Pituitary adenoma
Introduction
Pituitary adenomas (PAs) comprise a relatively common group of benign tumours with different clinical features. Despite their benign nature, these tumours can cause considerable morbidity [14] and pose a signicant burden on health care resources. Epidemiological data is important to correctly quantify the extent of disease and needed health care resources. Previous epidemiological data...