Use of Preoperative Imaging in Primary Hyperparathyroidism

Preoperative imaging is performed routinely to guide surgical management in primary hyperparathyroidism, but the optimal imaging modalities are debated.

Our objectives were to evaluate which imaging modalities are associated with improved cure rate and higher concordance rates with intraoperative findings. A secondary aim was to determine whether additive imaging is associated with higher cure rate.

This is a retrospective cohort review of 1485 adult patients during a 14-year period (2004-2017) at an academic tertiary referral center that presented for initial parathyroidectomy for de novo primary hyperparathyroidism.

Surgical cure rate, concordance of imaging with operative findings, and imaging performance.

The overall cure rate was 94.1% (95% confidence interval, 0.93-0.95). Cure rate was significantly improved if sestamibi/single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) was concordant with operative findings (95.9% vs. 92.5%, P = 0.010). Adding a third imaging modality did not improve cure rate (1 imaging type 91.8% vs. 2 imaging types 94.4% vs. 3 imaging types 87.2%, P = 0.59). Despite having a low number of cases (n = 28), 4-dimensional (4D) CT scan outperformed (higher sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value) all imaging modalities in multiglandular disease and double adenomas, and sestamibi/SPECT in single adenomas.

Preoperative ultrasound combined with sestamibi/SPECT were associated with the highest cure and concordance rates. If pathology was not found on ultrasound and sestamibi/SPECT, additional imaging did not improve the cure rate or concordance. 4D CT scan outperformed all imaging modalities in multiglandular disease and double adenomas, and sestamibi/SPECT in single adenomas, but these findings were underpowered.