Axelson D A, Doraiswamy P M, Boyko O B, Rodrigo Escalona P, McDonald W M, Ritchie J C, Patterson L J, Ellinwood E H, Nemeroff C B, Krishnan K R
Department of Psychiatry, Duke University, Durham, NC 27710.
Psychiatry Res. 1992 Oct;44(1):63-70. doi: 10.1016/0165-1781(92)90070-j.
The relationship between dexamethasone suppression test (DST) results and in vivo pituitary volume was studied in 24 psychiatric inpatients. The principles of systematic stereology were used to measure pituitary volume from 3-mm contiguous sagittal spin-echo magnetic resonance (MR) images of the brain. There was no correlation between pituitary volume and 3 p.m. or 10 p.m. postdexamethasone (post-DEX) plasma cortisol concentrations. However, when multiple regression analysis was performed to relate pituitary volume to gender, age, and post-DEX plasma cortisol concentrations, there was a significant relationship between pituitary volume and age, gender, and 10 p.m. post-DEX cortisol plasma concentration. This is the first study to demonstrate a method that directly measures, rather than estimates, in vivo pituitary volume. Furthermore, it suggests that activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis in psychiatric patients, as manifested by elevated post-DEX cortisol concentrations, may influence pituitary volume.
在24名精神科住院患者中研究了地塞米松抑制试验（DST）结果与体内垂体体积之间的关系。采用系统立体学原理，从大脑3毫米连续矢状面自旋回波磁共振（MR）图像测量垂体体积。垂体体积与下午3点或晚上10点地塞米松后（post-DEX）血浆皮质醇浓度之间无相关性。然而，当进行多元回归分析以研究垂体体积与性别、年龄和地塞米松后血浆皮质醇浓度之间的关系时，发现垂体体积与年龄、性别以及晚上10点地塞米松后皮质醇血浆浓度之间存在显著关系。这是第一项证明直接测量而非估计体内垂体体积方法的研究。此外，这表明精神科患者下丘脑-垂体-肾上腺轴的激活，如地塞米松后皮质醇浓度升高所表现的，可能会影响垂体体积。
