Pituitary stalk
Anatomical structure
The pituitary stalk, also known as the infundibular stalk, infundibulum, or Fenderson's funnel, is the connection between the hypothalamus and the posterior pituitary, the posterior lobe of the pituitary gland. The floor of the third ventricle is prolonged downward as a funnel-shaped recess—the infundibular recess—into the infundibulum, where the apex of the pituitary is attached.
It passes through the dura mater of the diaphragma sellae as it carries axons from the magnocellular neurosecretory cells of the hypothalamus down to the posterior pituitary where they release their neurohypophysial hormones, oxytocin and vasopressin, into the blood.
Damage to the pituitary stalk blocks the release of antidiuretic hormone, resulting in polydipsia (excessive water intake) and polyuria (excessive urination, central diabetes insipidus).
The diameter of the pituitary stalk at the level of optic chiasm is 3.3 mm, and at the pituitary gland insertion site is measured at 1.9 mm.
“Pituitary stalk” enters the record as anatomical structure. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Pituitary, stalk and Anatomical can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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This entry incorporates text from “Pituitary stalk” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.