Turkish saddle of the brain: a functional role in the human body, pathologies and their diagnosis

The Turkish saddle is an anatomical structure located at the base of the skull from its cerebral side, where the main endocrine gland is located and the most important element of the humoral regulation of the body's functions. In the structural plan, the Turkish saddle of the brain looks like this: it is a depression deepened in the sphenoid bone, with two channels of the optic nerve on either side of it , and a visual cross-over on the front surface. Here there is a venous sinus, and two internal carotid arteries enter the cavity of the skull , which form the main arterial pool of hemispheric blood supply.

Anatomical data

The Turkish saddle of the brain is located under the hypothalamus, a structural component of the midbrain that synthesizes statins and liberins, peptide molecules that transmit the signal to the pituitary gland occupying the entire space of the aforementioned depression. According to the hormones, the pituitary gland is divided into 3 parts, which differ in origin in the process of ontogenesis. The first part is called neurohypophysis and comes from nervous tissue. In it, pituitary vitamins synthesize important hormones for the exchange of water and the maintenance of the contractile function of the myometrium during labor and the ducts of the mammary glands during lactation. This is vasopressin and oxytocin, respectively.

The second fraction is adenohypophysis, which regulates the synthesis of hormones by other endocrine glands, directly affecting them through tropic hormones. In this case, the adenohypophysis "receives" a signal through hypothalamic statins, which inhibit the isolation of the tropics, and liberins. It is noteworthy that the Turkish saddle of the brain is mostly occupied by these two structural elements of the gland, because the third fraction is much smaller than the rest, although the total mass of the pituitary gland was established in an adult at 500 mg. The third part is the intermediate structure of the gland, which is directly related to the adenohypophysis, however, containing a completely different type of cells that synthesize melanocyte-stimulating hormone, which enhances the synthesis of melanin in specialized cells of the epidermis of the skin.

The main factor in the development of pituitary hormone deficiency

A remarkable fact of the structure of the pituitary gland and the membranes of the brain is the presence of the diaphragm of the Turkish saddle, which actually separates the middle brain from the hypothalamus from the gland. In this very often this structure is underdeveloped. This fact was established by a scientist with the name Busch in 1951, calling the anomaly of development an empty Turkish saddle. At the same time, the emerging empty Turkish saddle is an etiological factor in the development of a whole group of neuroendocrine pathologies.

Diagnostic measures

The Turkish saddle of the brain, due to structural features, does not lend itself to traditional methods of research, therefore the visualization of its contents is carried out by radiotherapy and MRI. X-ray diagnostics is the most optimal way of recognizing the morphological substrate of pituitary diseases. It includes both computed tomography and x-ray of the Turkish saddle. The first method is associated with high radiation load, but the most informative, as it provides an opportunity to assess the layered structure of the brain and gland in particular. Roentgen also provides 2 summation images in the lateral and frontal projections. Also very informative is the MRI method, which is inferior to CT in accuracy, but does not expose the patient to radiation loads. Moreover, these methods of diagnosing pituitary diseases can confirm both the pathology of the diaphragm of the saddle and the presence of tumor changes in the gland.