Short-term effects of surgery in post-menopausal patients with primary hyperparathyroidism and normal bone turnover

The most common clinical presentation of primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) is nowadays characterized by a slight skeletal involvement. We studied 5 consecutive female patients with PHPT presenting with bone turnover marker levels within the reference range of our Center and whose bone mineral density values were above the usual fracture risk threshold. In each patient we measured, both in basal conditions and daily, for the first 5 days after surgery, the following indexes: serum total (T-ALP) and bone-specific (B-ALP) alkaline phosphatase activity, osteocalcin (BGP, by two different assays), together with the 24-hour urinary excretions of total pyridinoline (Pyr/Cr) and deoxypyridinoline (DPyr/Cr), free deoxypyridinoline (FD-Pyr/Cr), cross-linked N-telopeptide of type I collagen (NTx/Cr), and type I C-telopeptide (CTx/Cr). The markers of both bone formation and resorption significantly decreased after surgery (p<0.001 by multiple ANOVA). Individual post-surgical markers changes were all significant but T-ALP and FD-Pyr, the most pronounced percent reductions being shown by NTx and CTx. The time-course of such variations substantially differed among the various indexes. These results show that bone formation and resorption markers are up-regulated also in PHPT patients with mild skeletal involvement; acute removal of parathyroid hormone excess differently affected the markers of bone turnover in terms of both entity and time-course.