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Early Normalization of Luteinizing Hormone Pulsatility after Successful Transsphenoidal Surgery in Women with Microprolactinomas

Clinique Neuro-chirurgicale, Hôpital de Bavière, and Endocrinobgie Expérimentale et Clinique, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire, Institut de Pathologie B23, 4000 Liege, Belgium

Address requests for reprints to: Dr. A. Beckers, Endocrinologie Experimentale, Centre Hospitalier Universitai, Institut de Pathologie, B23, Liege 4000, Belgium.

In eight hyperprolactinemic amenorrheic women who had a microprolactinoma, LH secretion was examined by measuring its concentration in blood samples collected every 15 min for 6 h before and 8 days after successful selective adenomectomy. Computer analysis was used for LH peak evaluation. In both circumstances, serum PRL and basal estradiol (E₂) levels were also determined. Before operation, the number of LH peaks ranged from zero to one per 6 h in seven patients and was two per 6 h in the eighth patient. In all patients, serum PRL was normal on the eighth postoperative day, while E₂ levels remained low, similar to the values usually found in the early follicular phase of the cycle in normal women. Postoperatively, mean LH levels were similar to preoperative levels, but there was a dramatic increase in the number of LH peaks (three to five per 6 h) in five of the eight patients

These observations confirm the impairment of LH pulsatility in hyperprolactinemiaand demonstrate that normalization of PRL levels by surgery can restore LH pulsatile secretion in certain women as early as the eighth day after operation in the absence of a significant change in serum E₂ levels. Thus, the preoperative impaired pulsatility of LH secretion was probably a central effect of hyperprolactinemia.

Received August 12, 1985.

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