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Updated: Jun 11, 2026
Establishment of a Simple and Effective Rat Model for Intraoperative Parathyroid Gland Imaging
Published on: August 17, 2022
Rapid intraoperative parathyroid hormone assay in fine needle aspiration for differential diagnosis in thyroid and
Maria Rosa Pelizzo1, Andrea Losi, Isabella Merante Boschin
1Institution of Medical and Surgical Sciences, Department of Surgical Pathology, University Hospital of Padova, Padova, Italy.
Background:
The purpose of our study was to investigate the efficacy of rapid intraoperative parathyroid hormone (rIO-PTH) analysis performed using material collected by fine needle aspiration as a parameter to distinguish anatomical structures which the surgeon is not able to identify clearly as parathyroid or lymph node during thyroid/parathyroid surgery. Before surgery, all patients gave written, informed consent.
Methods:
We measured the rIO-PTH on 50 anatomical structures, 32 presumed parathyroids and 18 presumed lymph nodes from 22 patients, who underwent thyroid/parathyroid surgery between May and September 2009.
Results:
The rIO-PTH values obtained on parathyroids ranged from 85.4 pmol/L to more than 2106 pmol/L, with a rIO-PTH median of 263.25 pmol/L. Results obtained on lymph nodes ranged from <0.52 pmol/L up to 20.4 pmol/L, with a rIO-PTH median equal to 1.31 pmol/L. Results of the Mann-Whitney test showed a rIO-PTH median significantly different (p<0.0001) between samples obtained from parathyroid glands and lymph node tissue.
Conclusions:
We demonstrated that rapid intraoperative measurement of parathyroid hormone is a good parameter for the differential diagnosis of parathyroid vs. lymph node tissue. We suggest extending the use of this technique to the field of parathyroid preservation during thyroid/parathyroid surgery in those cases where the parathyroids prove difficult to recognize on the basis of topographic or morphologic criteria.
