Hypoituitarism

There are many differen tumors that can affect the Pituitary gland. The pituitary gland secretes many hormones. With Hypoituitarism, the pituitary is not producing the correct amount of hormones if any. These hormones control many functions on the body such as growth. Hypoituitarism usually occurs gradually and causes weakness, fatige, headaches, and many other problems depending on what hormone is being affected. The most common reason for this is due to a tumor on the pituitary gland. This tumor can grow and start affecting other parts of the brain like pressing on the optic nerve and causing vision loss. Other causes for Hypoituitarism can be due to a head injury or a stroke. Treatment of the tumor is usually fixed by surgery and removing the tumor. Sometimes radiation treatment is used. Another treatment that is used even after surgery is hormone replacements. There are prescriptions that doctors can prescribe that will give the person normal amounts of hormone that they are missing. Hypoituitarism is usually curable if caught early. Since this usually takes awhile to be diagnosed it can cause problems that may not be able to be fixed.

Information found on:

http://healthabcpedia.net/hypopituitarism/329441.html

http://www.omni-guide.com/img/PituitaryTumor.jpg

http://depts.washington.edu/neurosur/ptcare/images/silbergeld/pit/4.jpg

Ramsay Hunt Syndrome

Of the many pathologies that take place in the temporal area, the one that I have researched is called Ramsay Hunt Syndrome. It is due to the infection of the facial nerve VII.

This nerve runs through the ear which is in the temporal region. The infection is caused by the virus, varicella-zoster. This is the same virus that causes chicken pox and is the reason most of us have it in our bodies. If the virus is not completely destroyed by our immune systems then it will remain in our body and some day may reoccur and inflame the facial nerve VII.









The symptoms are: a red rash that is very painful, blisters that can occur throughout your ear and in your mouth, facial weakness, and problems with your ear such as hearing loss. This usually occurs in adults over the age of 40 and is very rare is kids. The chance of death is very low and most the time no permanent damage occurs, if taken care of early. Doctors treat this by giving the patient medication to help with pain and the virus. The person infected needs to keep clean and take care of the blisters. Other than that there is not much for the person to do. They do need to stay away from people who have never had chicken pox along with babies and pregnant women.




I never knew the virus would stay in your body and something like this could occur. I am glad to know that it is rare, there is a treatment, and most people are fine.



Cites that were used to get information of Ramsay Hunt Syndrome:

Picture one and information
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/ramsay-hunt-syndrome/DS00878/DSECTION=2

MRI picture
http://home.flash.net/~drrad/tf/052796a.jpg

Chiari Malformation

We are studying Head pathologies and I chose to talk about Chiari Malfomation. This pathology is when the cerebellum actually goes down through the foramen magnum and blocks it. This no longer allows the flow of Cerebrospinal Fluid (CSF). The blocking of the CSF flow then can cause a Syrinx or a cyst where the CSF has no where to go. The Syrinx can get worse and turn into a syringomyelia and can start to destroy the spinal cord. The symptoms that a person may have would be dizziness, limb weakness, balance, and movement problems. We have learnt that balance and movements are some of the things that the cerebellum controls, which makes since that these would be symptoms. The most common treatment is to have surgery. This involves going in and allowing the CSF to flow through like normal.

I found all of my information from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnold-Chiari_malformation if you would like to read more about this pathology.

The MRI picture in the top left was found at www.pressenter.com/~wacma/mri.htm and the pictures side by side were found http://www.northshorelij.com/body.cfm?ID=6409.

intro

Hi my name is Lesley. I am doing these blogs for a class in Radiology. I am really exicted to write about all the different pathologys and I hope everyone likes them as well as I do. :)