ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Endocrinol.
Sec. Systems Endocrinology
This article is part of the Research TopicNeuroendocrine Aging: Inflammation, Oxidative Stress, and Cognitive ImpairmentView all 5 articles
Life Activities of Elderly Patients With Operated Nonfunctional Pituitary Adenoma
Provisionally accepted
Zehra Kara1*
Suna Avci2
Seçil Erden Melikoğlu3
Cem Sulu1
Ahmet Numan Demir1Serhat Uysal1Hande Mefkure Özkaya1
Pınar Kadıoğlu1- 1Department of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Diabetes, Istanbul Universitesi-Cerrahpasa Cerrahpasa Tip Fakultesi, Fatih, Türkiye
- 2Department of Geriatrics, Istanbul Universitesi-Cerrahpasa Cerrahpasa Tip Fakultesi, Fatih, Türkiye
- 3Department of Fundamentals of Nursing, Istanbul Universitesi-Cerrahpasa, Avcılar, Türkiye
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Abstract Aim To evaluate the clinical findings of nonfunctional pituitary adenomas in the geriatric population, functional status, cognitive function, quality of life, frailty, and incidence of anxiety and depression during treatment and follow-up. Material-Method We evaluated operated nonfunctional pituitary adenoma (NFA) cases aged 65 years and older followed up in our clinic between 2010 and 2022. Patients without pituitary adenoma who were followed up in the geriatrics outpatient clinic were included as the control group in the study. Data on clinical, endocrinological, pathological, and radiological findings, as well as on treatment methods, were taken from the files. Bioimpedance was used to assess muscle strength, walking speed, and muscle to fat ratio in patients. In addition, quality of life, anxiety, depression, cognitive function, and vulnerability were assessed. Results The study included 43 elderly patients diagnosed with NFA and 60 elderly patients without NFA. The mean ages, sex ratios, and body mass indices (BMI) of patients diagnosed with NFA and the control group were similar (age: 70.9 ± 0.66; 73.1 ± 0.8, p = 0.6; female/male: 24/19, 35/25, p = 0.1; BMI: 28.3 ± 3.9/28.5 ± 4.8, p = 0.9, respectively). Cognition status (MMT: 28;29, p=0.002), frailty scores (2[2-3]; 1[1-2], M[IQR], p<0.001), sarcopenia rates (62%; 30%, p=0.007) was worse in patients with NFA. Conclusion In the study comparing patients diagnosed with surgical pituitary NFA with patients of similar age and comorbidity, the frailty score and rate of sarcopenia were higher and their cognition was worse. The findings indicate that complications from surgery and postoperative treatment in patients with pituitary NFA make elderly patients more vulnerable. We emphasize that patients with NFA in this age group should be examined more carefully.
Keywords: Cognition, elderly population, Fragility, Non function pituitary adenoma, Sarcopenia
Received: 22 Oct 2025; Accepted: 11 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Kara, Avci, Melikoğlu, Sulu, Demir, Uysal, Özkaya and Kadıoğlu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Zehra Kara
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.