Primary empty sella (PES) is characterized by the herniation of the subarachnoid space within the sella, which is often associated with variable degrees of flattening of the pituitary gland in patients without previous pituitary pathologies. PES pathogenetic mechanisms are not well known but seem to be due to a sellar diaphragm incompetence, associated to the occurrence of upper sellar or pituitary factors, as intracranial hypertension and change of pituitary volume. As PES represents in a majority of cases, a neuroradiological findings without any clinical implication, the occurrence of endocrine, neurological and opthalmological symptoms, due to the above describes anatomical alteration, which delineates from the so called PES syndrome. Headache, irregular menses, overweight/obesity and visual disturbances compose the typical picture of PES syndrome and can be the manifestation of an intracranial hypertension, often associated with PES. Although hyperprolactinemia and growth hormone deficit represent the most common endocrine abnormalities, PES syndrome is characterized by heterogeneity both in clinical manifestation and hormonal alterations and can sometime reach severe extremes, as occurrence of papilledema, cerebrospinal fluid rhinorrhea and worsening of visual acuity. Consequently, a multidisciplinary approach, with the integration of endocrine, neurologic and ophthalmologic expertise, is strongly advocated and recommended for a properly diagnosis, management, treatment and follow-up of PES syndrome and all of the related abnormalities.

Aim: To gather data regarding factors predicting responsiveness to pasireotide in acromegaly. Patients and methods: SSTR2a, SSTR3, SSTR5, AIP, Ki-67 and the adenoma subtype were evaluated in somatotroph adenomas from 39 patients treated post-operatively with somatostatin analogues (SSAs). A standardized SSTR scoring system was applied (scores 0-3). All patients received first-generation SSAs, and 11 resistant patients were subsequently treated with pasireotide LAR. Results: None of the patients with negative or cytoplasmic-only SSTR2a expression (scores 0-1) were responsive to firstgeneration SSAs, as opposed to 20% (score 2) and 50% of patients with a score of 3 (PZ0.04). None of the patients with an SSTR5 score of 0-1 were responsive to pasireotide, as opposed to 5/7 cases with a score of 2 or 3 (PZ0.02). SSTR3 expression did not influence first-generation SSAs or pasireotide responsiveness. Tumours with low AIP were resistant to first-generation SSAs (100 vs 60%; PZ0.02), while they had similar responsiveness to pasireotide compared to tumours with conserved AIP expression (50 vs 40%; PZ0.74). Tumours with low AIP displayed reduced SSTR2 (SSTR2a scores 0-1 44.4 vs 6.7%; PZ0.006) while no difference was seen in SSTR5 (SSTR5 scores 0-1 33.3 vs 23.3%; PZ0.55). Sparsely granulated adenomas responded better to pasireotide compared to densely granulated ones (80 vs 16.7%; PZ0.04). Conclusion: The expression of SSTR5 might predict responsiveness to pasireotide in acromegaly. AIP deficient and sparsely granulated adenomas may benefit from pasireotide treatment. These results need to be confirmed in larger series of pasireotide-treated patients.

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