Comparative Study of FPA and NFPA: The relationship between the clinical characteristics and visual function impairment in patients with pituitary adenoma

Abstract Background To investigate the relationship between the clinical characteristics and visual function impairment in patients with functioning pituitary adenoma (FPA) and non-functioning pituitary adenoma(NFPA). Methods Case series study. The medical records of pituitary adenomas patients were reviewed retrospectively. Cases with ophthalmic evaluation were enrolled. Tumor types were confirmed by histologic analysis in all cases. The diameter measured on MRI were recorded. The tumor volume was calculated. All the observation indexes of the two groups were compared. The correlation between visual field and tumor volume was studied and the scatter plot was drawn. Results 30 in FPA and 43 in NFPA group were enrolled. There were 23% of FPA and 41.9% of NFPA had the first symptom in eyes, the former was higher than the latter. The best corrected visual acuity of FPA was better than that of NFPA group. There were 34 (56.7%) and 73 (84.9%) eyes had visual field defect respectively. The visual field defect of FPA was lighter than that of NFPA. Except for the anteroposterior diameter, there was no difference in the other dimensions of tumor diameter between the two groups. The tumor volume of FPA was smaller than that of NFPA group. The tumor size exhibited positive correlation with MD and negative correlation with MS in both groups. Conclusions The tumour growth of FPA was slower and less visual function deficiency than that of NFPA. Special attention on multi-types of visual field defects caused by FPA and NFPA Is needed.