Clinical features

The presentation of pinealomas is usually within the first three decades of life.

Features may be categorised into:

• mass effects - hydrocephalus and raised intracranial pressure following obstruction at the posterior part of the third ventricle. Pressure on the midbrain tectum produces Parinaud's ophthalmoplegia.
  
  
• effects secondary to spread through the third ventricle - hypothalamic disturbances, e.g. diabetes insipidus, precocious puberty, hypopituitarism, hypo/hyperphagia - and optic chiasmal involvement leading to visual field defects.