Abstract
Basal serum prolactin concentration was determined by radioimmunoassay in normal male and female subjects and patients with functional galactorrhea and pituitary tumors. Mean serum prolactin concentration was 34 ± 25.5 (1 sd) ng/ml for normal males, 45 ± 31.5 ng/ml for normal females, 96 ± 73.5 ng/ml for functional galactorrhea patients, and 12,444 ng/ml for pituitary tumor patients. There was considerable overlap in the serum prolactin levels of functional galactorrhea patients with levels found in normal females. Likewise, basal serum prolactin concentration in 2 of 8 patients with pituitary tumors was not clearly higher than some patients in the functional galactorrhea group. In order clinically to separate patients with pituitary tumors from patients with other causes of hyperprolactinemia, we administered l-dopa and a water load to individuals in each group. l-dopa resulted in greater than 50% suppression of serum prolactin concentration in all normal subjects and all patients with functional galacto...
Published Version
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