Clinical
Indications |
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Prolactin should be measured as
part of investigations into loss of libido, infertility, menstral disturbances and
gynaecomastia. Prolactin-secreting tumours can present with visual disturbance, headache
etc.
The use of prolactin levels in providing supportive evidence for a genuinely epilepetic
seizure is severely limited by the need for a sample within 30 minutes of the fit. Elevated prolactin levels may occur due to (the 5
p's):
- Physiological
- stress, exercise, lactation, pregnancy
- Pharmacological
- drugs, especially neuroleptics, antiemetics, SSRI's
- Pituitary
- prolactinoma or other tumour causing stalk
compression
- Non-Pituitary - PCOS, hypothyroidism, renal failure
- Problems
-
Macroprolactin
(non-pathological increase in apparent prolactin)
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