Citation, DOI, disclosures and article data
Citation:
Sarangi P, Kandel P, Deng F, et al. Elster's rule (pituitary gland). Reference article, Radiopaedia.org (Accessed on 22 Feb 2025) https://doi.org/10.53347/rID-71153
Elster's rule provides a guide to the expected approximate pituitary gland height in relation to age 1. The rule follows an even-numbered pattern of 6, 8, 10, and 12. The height of pituitary gland is taken in sagittal MR 1:
6 mm pituitary gland height in infants and children
8 mm pituitary gland height in men and postmenopausal women
10 mm pituitary gland height in women of childbearing age
12 mm pituitary gland height in women in late pregnancy or in postpartum women
Some studies of pituitary height on MRIs in various healthy populations have had various results not necessarily in agreement with this rule 2,3.
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1. Elster AD. Imaging of the sella: anatomy and pathology. (1993) Seminars in ultrasound, CT, and MR. 14 (3): 182-94. Pubmed
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2. Tsunoda A, Okuda O, Sato K. MR height of the pituitary gland as a function of age and sex: especially physiological hypertrophy in adolescence and in climacterium. (1997) AJNR. American journal of neuroradiology. 18 (3): 551-4. Pubmed
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3. Pratiksha Yadav, Shubham Singhal, Surbhi Chauhan, Saumya Harit, .MRI Evaluation of size and shape of normal pituitary gland: age and sex related changes.Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic Research [serial online] 2017 Dec [cited:2019 Sep 25] 12 TC01 - TC04
Available from https://jcdr.net/article_fulltext.asp?issn=0973-709x&year=2017&volume=11&issue=12&page=TC01&issn=0973-709x&id=10933 [on Sep 25 2019 ]
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