Adrenal responses to subtotal parathyroidectomy for primary hyperparathyroidism

Although it is well known that hypertension is often associated with primary hyperparathyroidism and that parathyroidectomy reverses or reduces this abnormality, the etiology of elevated blood pressure in hyperparathyroidism is still conjectural. We have analyzed serum calcium, blood pressure, and metabolites of adrenal cortical hormones before and after surgical therapy for hyperparathyroidism in 10 normotensive and six hypertensive patients with primary hyperparathyroidism. Successful parathyroidectomy lowered serum calcium (P less than 0.01) and diastolic blood pressure (P less than 0.05) in all subjects. Mean urinary aldosterone and Porter-Silber chromagens were within normal limits preoperatively in normotensive as well as hypertensive subjects. After parathyroidectomy, aldosterone levels as well as Porter-Silber chromagens decreased significantly in all patients (P less than 0.01). However, when normotensive and hypertensive subjects were analyzed separately, the decrease in aldosterone levels was significant only in the normotensive group (P less than 0.05) whereas the decrease in Porter-Silber chromagens reached significancy only in the hypertensive group (P less than 0.01). The results indicate that surgical therapy for hyperparathyroidism lowers serum calcium and blood pressure and is associated with a decrease in the excretion of adrenal steroid metabolites. It is suggested that the temporal relationship which exists between ionized calcium and steroidogenesis in hyperparathyroid patients contributes at least in part to the generalized decrease in blood pressure observed after successful parathyroidectomy.