The deleterious effect of post mortem degeneration results in a progressive loss of ultrastructural detail. This had led to reluctance (if not refusal) to examine autopsy material by means of transmission electron microscopy. Nevertheless, Johannesen has drawn attention to the fact that a sufficient amount of significant features may be preserved in order to enable the establishment of a definitive diagnosis, even on “graveyard” tissue.Routine histopathology of the autopsy organs of a woman of 78 showed the presence of a well circumscribed adenoma in the anterior lobe of the pituitary. The lesion came into close apposition to the pars intermedia. Its architecture was more compact and less vascular than that of the anterior lobe. However, there was some grouping of the cells in relation to blood vessels. The cells tended to be smaller, with a higher nucleocytoplasmic ratio. The cytoplasm showed a paucity of granules. In some of the cells, it was eosinophilic.
