The Influence of Conventional Treatment on Symptoms and Complaints in Patients With Chronic Postsurgical...

Quality of life (QoL) is impaired in patients with chronic hypoparathyroidism (HypoPT). With a recently developed specific patient questionnaire, the 28-item Hypoparathyroid Patient Questionnaire (HPQ 28), we were able to demonstrate an effect of laboratory parameters on symptoms and complaints identified by scales and items of the HPQ 28. Here, we evaluated the effect of conventional treatment modalities on QoL using this specific questionnaire. In this cross-sectional study, we included 49 HypoPT (41 female and 8 male) patients. Laboratory values of total serum calcium, magnesium, phosphate, calcium-phosphate product (CPP), and 24-hour urine for calcium and phosphate were analyzed. Patients completed the HPQ 28 questionnaire during the corresponding visit. Mean age was 57.3 ± 10.5 years and duration of disease 12.6 ± 9.8 years. Most patients (86%, n = 42) were treated with the active vitamin D analogs calcitriol, alfacalcidol, or dihydrotachysterol (DHT). The use of calcium and magnesium supplements influenced scales on HPQ 28 in a dose-dependent manner. We detected a dose-dependent increase on the HPQ 28 scales "depression and anxiety" and "pain and cramps," and the item "numbness and tingling" related to calcitriol. This effect was independent of gender, age, underlying disease, kind of surgery, serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D₃, calcium, or phosphate values. This study presents the first data on specific symptoms of HypoPT patients dependent on different treatment modalities. Our data suggest that in part the reduced QoL in these patients might be caused by conventional treatment. © 2022 The Authors. JBMR Plus published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.