Primary hyperparathyroidism and coexisting hyperthyroidism--review of the literature

Concomitance of hyperthyroidism and hyperparathyroidism is rare and only forty-nine well documented cases could be found in the literature. In the present study, only forty-three patients with adequate available clinical and laboratory data are reported. Hypercalcemia was found in all the patients and five of them (12%) had acute hyperparathyroidism. Two patients were also pregnant and had pancreatitis. Hypercalcuria was found in 73% and hypophosphatemia in 55% of the patients. Eleven patients (26%) had renal concretions. Skeletal roentgenograms showed abnormalities in 63% of the patients. Elevated serum level of alkaline phosphatase was present in 64% of the patients. However, there seemed to be no correlation with the severity of the skeletal lesions. Thyrotoxicosis commenced before that of Hyperparathyroidism in twenty-three patients (53%) whereas in the remaining twenty patients it was impossible to determine which disease began first. The etiologies of hyperparathyroidism as well as the differential diagnosis of parathyroid-related and nonparathyroid-related hypercalcemia are discussed. Microscopically, 74% of the patients had a single adenoma; 16% had hyperplasia of one to three parathyroid glands. One patient had an adenoma in combination with hyperplasia of one parathyroid gland, one had an adenoma and three hyperplastic glands, one had adenomas of two parathyroid glands in combination with hyperplasia of one parathyroid gland, and the other one had carcinoma of a parathyroid gland.2+ Finally, if a thyrotoxic patient still has hypercalcemia when becoming euthyroid after antithyroid therapy, coexisting hyperthyroidism should be considered and an operation should be performed as surgical treatment cured both diseases.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)