Aneurysms of the internal carotid artery simulating pituitary tumours. Report of two cases.

Two patients suffering from aneurysms of the internal carotid artery simulating pituitary tumours are reported. One of these was a 17-year-old boy with a mycotic aneurysm of the right internal carotid artery causing failure of growth and pubertal maturation. The second was a 53-year-old woman with a left internal carotid artery aneurysm, probably of atherosclerotic origin, who had evidence of anterior pituitary insufficiency.In both cases there was paresis of extraocular muscles and one patient had bitemporal hemianopsia. While lateral radiographs of the skull suggested intrasellar calcification in each case, further roentgenological investigation established that this calcification was actually extrasellar, and carotid arteriograms demonstrated the presence of an internal carotid aneurysm in each case. Investigations of the endocrine system confirmed the presence of anterior pituitary insufficiency in both patients, and diabetes insipidus became evident in one patient after cortisone therapy was commenced.This lesion, while rare, may be difficult to differentiate from a pituitary tumour. It is likely that this syndrome depends on aneurysmal expansion to the region of the sella turcica with compression of the pituitary gland itself, as well as the optic fibres.