I am fascinated with the liver. I don’t know why. This is why I decided to write a synopsis of a booklet I read, called “Jaundice – liver disease symptoms”. In “Jaundice-liver disease symptoms” there is all sorts of stuff about the liver. I will try to recap from memory, so bear with me.

The liver is one of the largest and most important organs in the body, with over 500 vital functions. It is also an organ that can easily recover. It can remain functional even if 80 - 90% of its cells are affected. It can completely regenerate within weeks, when most of it was removed surgically.

Take care of your liver, however, since the liver is not indestructible. Toxic substances such as alcohol and drugs or viruses such as hepatitis B and C, can cause permanent damages to the liver. When liver suffering is very advanced (as in cirrhosis), healthy tissue is replaced with another type of tissue and the liver is not able to repair and gradually loses function, and eventually the whole body suffers. Irreversible damage to the liver does not have treatment and liver transplantation is the only solution.

Diseases of the liver occur not only with these very serious aggressions. The liver "tires" also because of inadequate nutrition and lifestyle. The liver is dependent on what we eat, how we eat and even how we live. If you eat food without vitamins, with food additives (with residue, colors, fertilizer), food with more carbohydrates and fat, the liver will suffer. Excessive nutrition and lack of regular meals to make reserves causes the liver to suffer and unfortunately, fatty meals are stored directly into this organ, causing a fatty liver (hepatic steatosis).

Why is the liver an essential organ of the body? - Because it encompasses a series of functions that no other organ can carry. The filtering that separates nutrients from toxic substances, and cleans the blood, is not its only function. The liver is also a torage place for glucose in various forms, from where the glucose enters the blood stream and goes to various sections of the body.

Also the liver is a "factory" which produces a variety of vital body substances:
-protein, necessary for growth and development, for repairs in the body, production of hormones, etc.;
-bile, absolutely necessary digestion of fatty foods;
-cholesterol, a substance which, despite a negative aura, is still very important for the body;
-substances that have role in the removal of blood clots;
-substances involved in immunity, fighting infections.

You must know that the liver usually does not hurt, but only in exceptional cases (abscesses, tumors, heart failure). If you feel a pain in the right side of the abdomen it is likely the colon or gall bladder is the cause. Liver pain is accompanied by symptoms other than pain entirely located on the right. If you suffer from nausea (especially after a meal containing more fat), bloating, constipation, digestion problems, irritable bowel, acne, itchy skin and always feel exhausted, depressed and irritable, it is very likely this is due to a tired liver.

Addison's disease is a relatively rare disease that occurs when the glands blockers, located in the upper part of the kidney, do not produce sufficient amounts of hormones, especially cortisol and aldosterone.

Cortisol acts on most organs and is important for normal functioning of the body. Glands release cortisol blockers to help the body respond to stress by the country's disease, surgical procedures, births or other causes. Aldosterone retains salt and water in the body and maintains blood pressure.

Hormone production in the gland blockers is regulated by the brain, the hypothalamus and the pituitary gland (pituitary). The hypothalamus stimulates the pituitary gland to produce an adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), which will stimulate the production of the adrenal cortisol. If the production of cortisol secretion is low due to insufficient adrenergic blockers failure, this disease is called the Addison’s disease.

If the hypothalamus or pituitary gland is not working properly and a low amount of ACTH, the disease is insufficient secondary blockers. The most common Addison’s disease symptoms develop gradually and slowly install.

Most frequent Addison’s disease symptoms are:
- Muscle weakness and fatigue that is worse with time
- Weight loss. Massive weight loss is a common symptom
- Drop to the lack of appetite.

Other symptoms are:
- Nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and abdominal pain
- Appetite for salt
- dark skin- This manifests itself most often in areas with scars on the envelope, on the lips or skin around the mouth or nose, in the knee, elbow, finger joints of the feet or hand
- Feeling dizzy when rising from a sitting position. This is called orthostatic hypotension
- Tremors. People with Addison's disease sometimes have low levels of glucose (blood sugar level)
- Difficulty in concentrating increased irritability or depressive syndrome.

As the symptoms gradually install, they most often are not detected until it is installed adrenergic crisis. This crisis is caused by a stressful event such as a severe infection, trauma, a surgical procedure or dehydration. The body is unable to make enough cortisol to cope with stress. If this crisis is not treated the patient may die from the shock caused by a drop in blood.

Adrenergic crisis symptoms are:
- Severe vomiting and diarrhea leading to loss of large amounts of fluids (dehydration)
- Extreme weakness, faint feeling of imminent
- Pain suddenly appeared in the abdomen, back or legs
- Abnormal behavior: restlessness, confusion, feeling of fear leave
- High fever
- Extreme pale cyanotic lips and ear lobes (red-violet).

Treatment is usually for life, if you have Addison's disease. Once established therapy people with Addison's disease lead a normal life.

Treatment includes hormone replacement, medication, cortisol and aldosterone. - Often is used hydrocortisone because it can substitute for both hormones. If you are using another medicine instead of hydrocortisone, such as prednisolone, methylprednisolone or dexamethasone and the administration of a compound will replace aldosterone. Doses are increased during childhood, during periods of stress: injuries, surgical procedures or severe infection and if that produces a strong emotional stress.

On the alcoholic fatty liver disease symptoms axis there is much to be said. First of all, yes, alcohol is a major cause for liver disease and, of course, for fatty liver, but there is more to it. Thus, if you are interested in the alcoholic fatty liver disease symptoms connection, read on.



Hepatic steatosis or fatty liver is considered one of the most common liver diseases and is caused by a wide range of factors. Alcohol remains the main cause for steatosis, as well as obesity and diabetes. Studies by doctors demonstrate that hepatic steatosis is an early and constant complication of alcoholism in moderate drinkers, hardcore drinkers developing a disease called cirrhosis.

The amount of ingested alcohol is the most important risk factor in the development of steatosis. Specialists say a 80 ml quantity of alcohol consumed daily for several years favors the occurrence of hepatic steatosis. Thus, it was observed that women often develop the disease. In combination with alcohol, an enabling role in the occurrence of this disease is each patient's genetic condition.

In time, there is a significant increase in chronic viral hepatitis type C in patients with fatty liver disease. The combination of hepatitis C virus infection and alcohol affects your liver more than alcohol alone. Such patients have a lower survival rate and develop the disease at younger ages. Hepatitis C infections cause a serious risk to develop liver cancer in patients with cirrhotic liver. Moreover, this infection contributes to increasing the severity of steatosis.

The evolution of steatosis is favorable, the only chance of a complete cure being the complete abstinence from alcohol for 5-6 weeks. However, in chronic alcoholics, steatosis is associated with alcoholic hepatitis and, in such cases, hepatocellular insufficiency occurs. The disease also affects obese people, as well as patients with diabetes. Most times, the disease has no symptoms, only the fact that the patient complains of epigastric pain, possibly sensitive to palpation and jaundice rarely occurs. In the final stages of alcoholic liver disease, the patient's only chance of survival is a liver transplant. Six months of abstinence from alcohol is a necessary requirement for liver transplantation.

Fatty liver is one of the most common liver diseases and in one of 4 patients the illness progresses to a more serious stage of the disease. In fact, fatty liver disease means that an excess of fat accumulates in liver cells and the liver is not functioning as it would normally. Some patients diagnosed with the disease sometimes reach steato-hepatitis and then fibrosis, which are severe stages of the disease.

Hepatic steatosis, as steato-hepatitis, can be cured if the patient wants it, because the liver tissue can regenerate. The same cannot be said for a patient who has already reached fibrosis, a complicated stage of the disease. Fibroses are some scars that appear in the liver due to inflammation. These scars take out entire sections of liver tissue. Once fatty livers found, the patient will be regularly monitored. Such patients must observe a sanitary regime, food, lifestyle and medication treatment. Even if the disease does not heal, doctors can prevent it from getting worse. Drug treatment is closely linked to the food diet.

This disease, also known as the Legionellosis is caused by the bacteria Legionella pneumophila. It is a serious lung infection, which in some cases can be fatal. Legionnaires' disease was first observed in 1976 in the United States, in a hotel in Philadelphia, among participants at a congress of former combatants belonging to the American Legion.



Contamination. The bacteria responsible for Legionnaires' disease, named "Legionella pneumophila, survives in aquatic or damp environment, especially water condensed from air conditioning systems or water distribution pipes in urban areas. Infection occurs after inhalation of very fine droplets of contaminated water, e.g. during the shower.

The risk of contamination is greater in the presence of certain factors: smoking and alcoholism, diabetes, weakened immune system (immune system) and chronic respiratory insufficiency. Outbreaks of legionellosis occur only when the mode of contamination is linked to an air conditioning system or water distribution (return). Appropriate modern hotels, equipped with central air conditioning and water distribution, especially for showers are some of the places where you can contact this disease.

Legionnaires disease can break out in hospitals, which are also equipped with central air conditioning systems. But this way of contamination is very rare and not only seriously affects people whose immune system is weakened. Before the outbreak in 1976, in that hotel in Philadelphia, Legionnaires' disease had been responsible for other outbreaks of pneumonia, without the bacteria in question being identified.

Symptoms. Legionnaire’s disease symptoms are: headaches, temperature growth, abdominal pain, diarrhea, cough, moderate fever and a state of general malaise. Then, within days the Legionnaire’s disease symptoms consist of fever grow, muscle pain and fatigue. Pneumonia is manifested by chest pain, difficulty breathing and cough with expectoration.

This stage lasts about a week, when the disease is treated in time and occurs in people younger or without health problems, then progress to cure this disease. Instead, in the absence of treatment or to those extremely fragile, respiratory disorders worsen. Cough becomes productive in this situation, the patient was delirious and general condition deteriorates.

Diagnosis and treatment. Seriousness of the disease the patient should be hospitalized. Diagnosis is established by evidence the bacteria "Legionella pneumophila" in sputum or bronchial secretions harvested from the bronchi using a device.The antibiotics are administrated intravenously, especially in severe cases. It enables a rapid evolution favorable to younger patients and those without health problems until disease, but it should last at least 15 days, sometimes 3 weeks.

In severe forms may be needed assisted respiration in resuscitation service. Despite treatment, Legionnaires' disease is sometimes fatal to the elderly or those whose general condition is deteriorating. And where the epidemic was in Philadelphia when 29 died of former Legionnaires who had health problems are or were elders.

Prophylaxis. Constant supervision and disinfection of air conditioning and water distribution is the most effective preventive measures. Cooling aims regulation of temperature, humidity or dry conditions excessive air Modern Buildings, including hospitals, and its purification by filtration. This modern technology has, as shown, insidious effects. In fact, it may encourage the growth of microbes such as Legionella bacteria that has adapted extremely well to the humidity of air conditioning installations, enabling the contamination of those who occupy the buildings equipped with air conditioning.

Kawasaki disease, also known as the cutaneo adenopathy syndrome, or Kawasaki syndrome, is a multi-systemic disease, febrile, acute in children, characterized by inflammation of blood vessels. The condition was named after a Japanese pediatrician, Tomisaku Kawasaki, who first described it in 1967. Although it is most common among Asian children, the disease can affect children of all races.



The Kawasaki disease is characterized by inflammation of blood vessels in the whole body, but there is no specific test for the diagnosis; the diagnosis is relying on a series of signs and symptoms. The Kawasaki disease symptoms are: -fever that can last for over 5 days -erythema, severe growth areas; -conjunctival congestion -red, swollen, dry lips;  -strawberry-language with bright red dots on the top -pulp; skin-peeling fingers; -redness and swelling of the fingers, lips, palms, soles; -lymphadenopathy.

Most children having the Kawasaki disease symptoms are aged between 1 and 8 years old, but this disease can affect teens too, and it is twice more common in boys than in girls. 50% of children develop heart problems such as arrhythmia after 4 weeks of evolution of this disease, arterial aneurysms, formation of blood clots. Other meningitis symptoms include inflammation of the brain, the joints and bladder complications. These problems can be solved in time without permanent damage of the affected organs.

Patients recover if all coronary arteries are not affected in the first 8 weeks. For those with impaired survival depends on the severity of this disease. Following treatment, less than 1% of children die. Those who do not survive- death occurs within the first month, but even the several aneurysms resolve in matter of years. Almost every year, those who do not resolve their problems in this period progress to dissection.

The treatment uses high doses of aspirin to reduce inflammation and prevent the formation of clogs. There can also be used an intravenous treatment based on gamma globulin. This treatment proved effective in reducing the formation of aneurysms in coronary arteries.

Pathogenic aspects - Coronary artery is observed in almost all fatal cases. It is a typical proliferation and an infiltration of the vascular wall with mono nuclear cells. Aneurysms and thrombosis can be seen in patients suffering from the Kawasaki disease. Other events include myocardial infarction, pericarditis, cardiomegaly, myocardial infarction and myocardial ischemia.

Causes of the Kawasaki disease - The Kawasaki disease causes are unknown, but researchers believe the disease is not contagious. There are a developed number of theories according to which some bacterial or viral infections or environmental factors could trigger the Kawasaki disease. There is a common belief that there is a close connection between an unusual form of Staphylococcus aureus to eliminate toxins from a septic shock syndrome and Kawasaki syndrome. Some risk factors for KS includes: -age between 2 and 5 years; -male gender; -part of an ethnic-Asians group

In the category of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), the sexually transmitted disease symptoms are caused by various microorganisms that are associated with sexual activity. Not all diseases included in this category are transmitted sexually and their effects are not restricted to reproductive organs. There are approximately 24 STDs but we will stop here on the most popular.



Syphilis is an infectious disease caused by Treponema Pallidum, most often transmitted sexually (90% of cases) but also by kissing, accidental inoculation through bites or stings, transfusion of fresh blood, open sores of skin diseases (herpes , acne) and quite exceptional by contaminated objects. Syphilis can be transmitted from a sick mother to the child starting with 3.4 months of pregnancy. The average incubation period is 21 days.

The sexually transmitted disease symptoms for syphilis begin with the appearance of syphilitic chancre (erosion with smooth edge, clean bottom and the last, covered by a serosity without inflammation and painless). Secondary syphilis occurs as 6-8 weeks after the appearance of chancre and is characterized by a number of skin manifestations, usually accompanied by visceral poly-adenopathy.

Some of the symptoms may be erythematous, erosive mucosa (the lining of the mouth, genital, anal, etc.), or pigmentation and ulcer. The hair can be affected(syphilitic alopecia), as well as the nails. General symptoms are represented by fever, moderate weight loss, decreased appetite, headache, bone or muscle.

Latent syphilis is a seemingly quiet period after secondary infection symptoms were off and can take years. Tertiary syphilis occurs after a variable period of onset of the disease (between 3 and 20 years) and is not necessarily an evolutionary stage skin. Diagnosis is serological: RBW test (now abandoned) or VDRL. Gonorrhea (gonorrhea) is a bacterial infection almost always sexually contacted. The incubation period is 3-5zile.

Acute infection is rarely met in women but when it is characterized by burn sensations and pain when urinating, vaginal and urethral yellowish secretion. Chronic infection, almost asymptomatic, is mostly met in women. The man has an acute infection that starts with previous urethritis itching, redness and swelling of the area. Then the yellow-green secretion is being associated with urethral burning and pain on urination.

Trichomoniaza is an infection caused by a parasite (Trichomonas vaginalis) transmitted sexually. After some statistics is the most common sexually transmitted disease. The transmission can also occur by water in swimming pools, toilet cover sites, toilet articles, but these are extremely rare cases. The main transmitter of the disease is the man who most often presents as an asymptomatic.

In women the disease is evolving as a sub-acute vulvo-vaginitis characterized by itching, burning, vaginal discomfort associated with whitish secretion, creamy yellow or greenish ugly smelly secretion. Untreated, this disease will become chronic with relapsed pre-and post-menstrual and pregnancy. Non-specific infections are often caused by Chlamydia trachomatis.

In women, most often, these infections are asymptomatic but may manifest through the vagina, cervical or urethral syndrome. In men, urethritis is often sub acute, with frequent urination, mild dysuria, clear urethral secretion, or white lining. Evocative symptoms are severe itching in the pubic symphysis, especially in the evening and night, caused by parasites stings.

BSE - mad cow disease; It had been several years already since the first case in England had been diagnosed. A previously unknown neurological disease in cattle: “cow 133” died in 1985 after the presence of head tremor, weight loss and coordination disorders.



Specialists had blamed the early symptoms of mad cow disease on a "progressive spongiform encephalopathy of cattle", a new disease, which was then called "mad cow disease" because of how weird the sick animals were acting. Later it became clear that there was an epidemic outbreak of this new disease. The epidemic peak was reached in 1992-1993, with over 100,000 confirmed cases of disease in cattle.

Despite protection measures, which most European countries have taken, prohibiting the imports of cattle and beef products from Britain, the disease has gone beyond Britain's borders. There were over 180,000 reported cases of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in Great Britain and more than 1,500 cases in several countries in Western Europe.

The disease appeared in cows due to the unfortunate practice of using food supplement with scraps of meat from sheep suffering from scrapie ( "Pimiento"), in order to increase production of milk and meat. This mode of feeding began to be used in 1930 and has become a rule in animal breeding farms around the world.

vCJD - the human variant of the disease - Although initially officials denied reports that BSE can be transmitted to humans, in 1996 the British government officially recognized that there were already victims of the new human brain disease, related to mad cow disease. This disease - the specialists called it variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) - was assigned in the class of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE), along with the Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and the Kuru disease.

They form a family of degenerative brain diseases affecting man and some domestic and wild animals. The incubation period is very long, for months or years. There is no treatment to cure these diseases, their evolution always leading to death.

As for the early symptoms of mad cow disease in humans, vCJD differs from traditional forms of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease by impairing the younger patients (average age is 29 years, as opposed to 65 years), vCJD has a longer incubation (years or decades) and a longer duration (on average 14 months). The nature of the agent has not been fully elucidated, but the most credible theory is that there is a new pathogen, called prion, a protein with the same composition as one of the proteins in the brain, but with an abnormal three-dimensional structure.

Prions can be transmitted from animals to humans by eating diseased meat or their penetration into the human body is possible through neuro-surgical instruments, procedures or medical products (transplanted corneas and dura mater, pituitary hormone extract, human growth hormone etc..). Also, there is the possibility of transmission by the bite of pets or wild animals that carry the prions. Unlike other microbial agents, prions seem to lack genetic material and are very resistant to high temperatures, regular or antibacterial agent inactivation or sterilization procedures.

In the early symptoms of mad cow disease in humans, patients see discrete psychiatric symptoms most often in the form of depression. Less often it mimics a psychosis similar to schizophrenia. Then there are a number of unusual symptoms, such as skin feeling sticky, and neurological signs, the most common being motor instability, difficulty walking and performing voluntary movements, lack of coordination. The patient's condition progressively gets worse, so eventually the patient becomes completely still and mute, then dies.

Hyperthyroidism is the hyper function of the thyroid gland. Graves disease is also known as Basedow's disease or Parry disease and is a disease that is characterized by 3 major manifestations: hyperthyroidism with diffuse goiter, dermopathy and ophthalmopathy. These major events do not always occur together.



Basedow disease is a relatively common disease that may occur at any age but is most common in 3rd and 4th decades of life, its frequency being increased in women. In geographical areas where goiter is endemic men to women ratio is 7:1 compared to geographical regions with endemic goiter where the ratio is much lower.

Graves disease symptoms are classified to reflect events associated to thyrotoxicosis and Basedow disease specific. The most common Graves disease symptoms are: emotional lability, nervousness, tremors, insomnia, excessive sweating and intolerance to heat and increased peristalsis. Also weight loss is common despite maintenance or increased appetite. The presence of proximal muscle weakness with reduction in force is often manifested by difficulty in ascending the stairs.

Periomenopause in women tends to trace the appearance of amenorrhea. Young people are generally dominated by nervous symptoms while the predominant symptoms in the elderly are cardiovascular and eye tests. Specific manifestations of Graves disease are: - Hyper functional diffuse goiter; - Dermopathy; - ophthalmopathy.

These symptoms occur in different combinations and with a highly variable frequency, the most common being goiter. Diffuse goiter and lobular hyper functions may be asymmetrical. Detection of the thyroid gland usually indicates this thyrotoxicosis, but this sign is sometimes present in other forms of thyroid hyperplasia. Differential diagnosis is made with the murmur of breath, venous and carotid. On palpation of thyroid can be detected an increased pyramidal lobe.

Dermopathy usually manifests itself in the rear part of the legs and is called pretibial mixed. This is a late phenomenon that occurs in approximately half of patients in active stage of thyrotoxicosis and virtually in all patients with ophthalmopathy.

Dermopathy (manifestations of skin) is characterized by: - Skin is soft, warm, moist, fine, erythematous (redness especially the emotions in the region prior to the neck and chest); - Itching skin; - Hyper pigmentation in the certain areas (Jellinek sign), and at the elbows, hands or diffuse hyper pigmentation; - Vitiligo; - Alopecia (in the scalp is low, soft, very friable); - The hair on the body is fine and reduced - Nails are thinner; they become soft, loose and shiny.

Ophthalmopathy is characterized by:
- Upper eyelid retraction determine the discovery of a large portion of the sclera giving the patient a fixed, fearful that creates the impression of apparent exophthalmia. This causes delay in achieving the upper eyelid descent causing strange movements of the eye. The reasons for this mechanism are represented by high muscle spasm due to higher eyelid increased sympathetic nervous system activity (activity blockers)

- Corneal surface moist and glossy
- Exophthalmia - it consists in prominent eyeballs. Exophthalmia is commonly bilateral and rarely meets unilaterally. The look here is fixed and due to excessive opening of the fissure and tears to the eyes is double. Sometimes exophthalmia can progress to malignant form, setting up blindness.

- Congestion of the conjunctiva which is more intense at the edge of circumscribing the eyelids accompanied by hyper secretion; - limiting upward movement of the eyeball to a certain threshold; - inability to perform eye movements

Autoimmune diseases are conditions characterized by the fact that the body is attacked by its own immune system.
- Organ specific diseases are different: Hashimoto's thyroiditis, myasthenia, juvenile insulin dependent diabetes.
- Non-specific organ diseases include disseminated lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis and dermatopolimyositis.



Treatment of most autoimmune diseases may act only on the symptoms and usually calls mainly on corticosteroids and immunosuppressants, and, sometimes, to plasmaphereses (consisting of plasma exchange in the extraction of unwanted substances in the blood). The autoimmune disease list of symptoms is long and the symptoms are highly complex, but instead of an autoimmune disease list of symptoms I will try to describe the diseases in general terms and name some of the symptoms.

Autoimmune diseases are a heterogeneous collection of diseases with a subtle relation, which is difficult to understand. It is a list constantly added with new diseases. The diseases in this category have multiple symptoms and locations and are very different. A classification has been possible only in recent years due to scientific advances. And many, many questions. These are autoimmune diseases.

Naturally, each of us is aware that in one way or another we undermine our own health by smoking, alcohol abuse, inadequate nutrition with an excess of sweets and fats, inactivity stress and insufficient rest. Well, surprisingly, in some cases the body itself goes beyond control and uses its defense mechanisms against its own cells, as it happens in autoimmune diseases. Normally, the body reacts in a complex immune response in the face of antigens: bacteria, viruses, toxins, cancer cells, proteins, tissues, foreign bodies.

In autoimmune diseases such a response is prompt and intensive extends to the tissues the system considers foreign, and against which produce abnormal antibodies. It is still unclear exactly what causes the body to react in this devastating way. The usual suspects are genetic factors, organic or functional alterations of cells, which make them seem abnormal external factors (infectious, physical, chemical or drugs) that act on tissues or a correct initial response against a foreign antigen that is diverted later against a own components.

Red blood cells may be contested, blood vessels, liver or kidney tissues, endocrine glands, muscles, skin, joints, etc.. Sometimes the system attacks a single organ, such as the thyroid, sometimes the system attacks a tissue found in different organs, such as basal membrane of the lungs or kidneys, in Goodpasture's syndrome. Sometimes there coexist several autoimmune diseases (eg, thyroid and diabetes), sometimes a single disease is systemic in nature, such as lupus.

There is no common symptomatology for all these various diseases. However, usually the patients have a high fever or persistent dizziness, malaise and a chronic feeling of fatigue. What brings them to the doctor are usually manifestations of the disease in question, the result of severe functional and organic alterations.

Hashimoto thyroiditis is a chronic inflammation of the thyroid, evidenced by an increase in thyroid volume and evidence of thyroid failure (weight gain, rough skin, feeling of fatigue, decreased heart rate, etc.). In rare cases, the disease may progress to a hypersecretion of thyroid hormones. Graves disease is manifested by the appearance of a goiter, with signs of glandular hypersecretion (weight loss, nervousness, trouble sleeping, shaking of limbs, fatigue, muscle weakness, increased heart rate) and sensitivity to light, while the eyes seem to pop out of their orbits.

Pituitary tumors are pathological processes occurring in the pituitary gland, a structure with endocrine activity, located in the brain. Although its dimensions are very small, the pituitary has a very important role in the secretion of hormones that affect various organs and systems and participate generally in the maturing of the body.



Pituitary tumors represent 10-25% of all intracranial tumors by location. Pituitary disease symptoms are usually found in close examination because they are not immediately apparent as clear-cut signs of disease. Pituitary tumors are classified into 3 groups: Benign adenomas - tumors that are not cancer - They have a very slow growth rate and are not able to metastasize (to expand through the blood stream, the lymphatic system, in other parts of the body, at a distance from where the initial neoplasia took place).

Invasive pituitary adenomas - are tumors that are capable of expansion and invasion, especially in the cranial bones or sinuses located below the pituitary. Pituitary carcinomas - are malignancies (cancers). These are processes that extend into the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) or outside it. Very few of pituitary tumors, however, are the result of neoplasia. This classification took into account the biological behavior of adenomas and their evolution, and is currently widely accepted by specialists in the field.

But most tumors are adenomas and only a small fraction of them are show pituitary disease symptoms. Invasive adenomas (35% of pituitary neoplasia cases) can invade the skull bones and the sphenoid sinus. Of all pituitary tumors, carcinomas represent 0.1-0.2%.

Pituitary adenomas can be classified according to:
The anatomy of the tumor – tumors are grouped according to size, which is determined from imagery measurements into: microadenomas (10 mm in diameter) and macroadenomas (over 1 cm diameter). Macroadenomas, in turn, can be split into encapsulated macroadenomas or invasive macroadenomas (localized or diffuse). Most tumors are microadenomas. This classification of adenomas according to size, extension and by exploring the invasineveness of the tumor using imagery is extremely detailed and complex.

Neurologic and radiologic scans include (among others):
- X ray of the skull (profile) to view the walls of the pituitary, to measure its diameters and then to classify adenomas.
- pneumoencephalography or PEG - is a more complicated method by which to view the amount of air that will deploy in the cerebrospinal fluid space above the sella turcica.
- carotid artery angiography - an investigation is carried out routinely in the laboratory analysis of pituitary tumors, but only if there are suspected vascular lesions.
- polytomography - special tomography is a method which makes detailed images (by consecutive sections) of the structures difficult to access, using a special device, able to perform complex movements.
- CT (computer tomography) - the modern method which can do sections at 3 mm distance. It has many advantages: viewing the structures surrounding the adenoma, capsule, integrity of bone walls and the invasive nature of the adenoma.

According to radio-anatomic classification, there are 4 stages of adenomas, as follows: Stage 1 - adenoma 1 cm in diameter, without extension to the sella; Stage 2 - macroadenoma (over 1 cm diameter) with possible extension to the sella; Stage 3 - macroadenoma with enlargement and invasion of the supersellar space; Stage 4 - macroadenoma that goes beyond the sella and walls.