Pituitary apoplexy with hypercreatinekinasemia

: A 59 year-old female with hypercereatinekinasemia associated with pituitary apoplexy was presented. The patient showed headache, nausea, vomiting and pyrexia. On admission, slight nuchal rigidity and photophobia were observed. However all the cranial nerves were intact; neither ophthalmoplegia nor visual defect were observed. Cerebrospinal fluid analysis revealed an elevated protein concentration of 164 mg/dl. There were 157 cells/mm2 (30% neutrophils). Skull X-P disclosed the ballooning of the sella turcica. CT scan, endocrinological examination and angiography lead us to the diagnosis of pituitary apoplexy. By the sphenoidal approach necrotic tissue with a little chromophobe adenoma were removed. No haematoma was detected. The isozyme pattern of serum CK showed 100 percent MM type. Serum CK concentration reached as high as 2502 IU/l on the fifth day from the onset of the symptom and then normalized in 12 days. Though the cause of the hypercreatinekinasemia uncertain, the similar pattern of hypercreatinekinasemia is known in the acute stage of cerebrovascular accident, and it is more often observed in thalamic hemorrhage. We assumed that the hypercreatinekinasemia in our case was caused by hypothalamic irritation, which lead hyperpermeability of sarcolemma and leakage of the enzymes of muscle origin.