Journal of the Chinese Medical Association
Volume 70, Issue 5 , Pages 215-217, May 2007

Intrasellar Symptomatic Salivary Gland Rest

  • Chih-Hao Chen

      Affiliations

    • Division of Neurosurgery, Department of Surgery, Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, R.O.C.
    • Corresponding Author InformationCorrespondence to: Dr Chih-Hao Chen, Division of Neurosurgery, Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital, 386, Ta-Chung 1st Road, Kaohsiung 813, Taiwan, R.O.C.
    • ,
  • Shu-Shong Hsu

      Affiliations

    • Division of Neurosurgery, Department of Surgery, Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, R.O.C.
    • ,
  • Ping-Hong Lai

      Affiliations

    • Department of Radiology, Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, R.O.C.
    • National Yang-Ming University School of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.
    • ,
  • Yu-Shing Lo

      Affiliations

    • Department of Pathology, Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, R.O.C.

Received 6 November 2006; accepted 5 February 2007.

Article Outline

Ectopic salivary gland tissue in sellar turcica is frequently observed in microscopic examination at autopsy. This tissue is considered clinically silent. Only 2 symptomatic cases have been previously reported. Here we report a 28-year-old woman presenting with galactorrhea and hyperprolactinemia. Magnetic resonance imaging revealed a 6×5-mm nodule in the posterior aspect of the pituitary gland. This nodule showed isointensity on T1- and T2-weighted images and less enhancement on post-contrast T1-weighted images. Transsphenoidal exploration revealed a cystic lesion within the pituitary gland, which consisted of a grayish gelatinous content. The pathologic examination confirmed the diagnosis of salivary gland rest.

Key Words:  ectopic salivary gland , magnetic resonance imaging , pituitary gland

No full text is available. To read the body of this article, please view the PDF online.

 

Back to Article Outline

References 

  1. Schochet SS , McCormick WF , Halmi NS . Salivary gland rests in the human pituitary: light and electron microscopical study . Arch Pathol . 1974;98:193–200
  2. Chimelli L, Gadelha MR, Une K, Carlos S, Pereira PJ, Santos JL, et al  Intra-sellar salivary gland-like pleomorphic adenoma arising within the wall of a Rathke's cleft cyst . Pituitary . 2000;3:257–261
  3. Kato T, Aida T, Abe H, Miyamachi K, Hida K, Taneda M, et al. Ectopic salivary gland in the pituitary gland: case report . Neurol Med Chir . 1988;28:930–933
  4. Tatter SB , Edgar MA , Klibanski A , Swearingen B . Symptomatic salivary-rest cyst of the sella turcica . Acta Neurochir (Wien) . 1995;135:150–153
  5. Dubois PM , el Amraoui A , Heritier AG . Development and differentiation of pituitary cells . Microsc Res Tech . 1997;39:98–113
  6. Kusakabe M , Sakakura T , Sano M , Nishizuka Y . A pituitary-salivary mixed gland induced by tissue recombination of embryonic pituitary epithelium and embryonic submandibular gland mesenchyme in mice . Dev Biol . 1985;110:382–391
  7. Gudbrandsson FK , Liston SL , Maisel RA . Heterotopic salivary tissue in the neck . Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg . 1982;90:279–282
  8. Rodriguez F , Scheithauer BW , Ockner DM , Giannini C . Solitary fibrous tumor of the cerebellopontine angle with salivary gland heterotopia: a unique presentation . Am J Surg Pathol . 2004;28:139–142
  9. Weitzner S . Ectopic salivary gland tissue in submucosa of rectum . Dis Colon Rectum . 1983;26:814–817
  10. Curry B , Taylor CW , Fisher AW . Salivary gland heterotopia: a unique cerebellopontine angle tumor . Arch Pathol Lab Med . 1982;106:35–38
  11. Rand T, Lippitz P, Kink E, Huber H, Schneider B, Imhof H, et al. Evaluation of pituitary microadenomas with dynamic MR imaging . Eur J Radiol . 2002;41:131–135
  12. Iqbal J , Kanaan I , Al Homsi M . Non-neoplastic cystic lesions of the sellar region presentation, diagnosis and management of eight cases and review of the literature . Acta Neurochir (Wien) . 1999;141:389–397
  13. Shin JL , Asa SL , Woodhouse LJ , Smyth HS , Ezzat S . Cystic lesions of the pituitary: clinicopathological features distinguishing craniopharyngioma, Rathke's cleft cyst, and arachnoid cyst . J Clin Endocrinol Metab . 1999;84:3972–3982
  14. Eun Kim J , Hee-Won J . Diagnosis and treatment of symptomatic Rathke's cleft cyst . Neurosurgery Quarterly . 2003;13:64–76
  15. Hampton TA , Scheithauer BW , Rojiani AM , Kovacs K , Horvath E , Vogt P . Salivary gland-like tumors of the sellar region . Am J Surg Pathol . 1997;21:424–434
  16. Albuquerque FC , Hinton DR , Weiss MH . Excessively high prolactin level in a patient with a nonprolactin-secreting adenoma: case report . J Neurosurg . 1998;89:1043–1046
  17. Liu JK , Couldwell WT . Contemporary management of prolactin-omas . Neurosurg Focus . 2004;16:E2
  18. Arafah BM , Nekl KE , Gold RS , Selman WR . Dynamics of pro-lactin secretion in patients with hypopituitarism and pituitary macroadenomas . J Clin Endocrinol Metab . 1995;80:3507–3512

PII: S1726-4901(09)70361-2

doi:10.1016/S1726-4901(09)70361-2

Journal of the Chinese Medical Association
Volume 70, Issue 5 , Pages 215-217, May 2007

Article Tools