Predicting cure and hypocalcemia by intraoperative parathyroid hormone decline in normohormonal primary...

Normohormonal primary hyperparathyroidism is characterized by hypercalcemia and inappropriately normal parathyroid hormone levels. We previously reported that intraoperative parathyroid hormone decline of 50-70% for normohormonal and 75-88% for classic primary hyperparathyroidism during parathyroidectomy was predictive of (1) cure and (2) avoidance of hypocalcemia in a single-institution study (derivation cohort). We sought to externally validate these findings.

We performed a multi-institutional retrospective cohort study of patients undergoing parathyroidectomy for primary hyperparathyroidism from 2002 to 2019 (validation cohort). Primary outcomes were biochemical cure (calcium <10.3 mg/dL) and postoperative hypocalcemia (≤8.8 mg/dL) ≥6 months postoperatively. Test characteristics of the previously derived thresholds were evaluated in this cohort.

A total of 163 (16%) of 1,037 patients had normohormonal primary hyperparathyroidism. Cure rates were similar for normohormonal and classic primary hyperparathyroidism (94% vs 92%, P = .41). In patients who were cured, the median intraoperative parathyroid hormone decrease was lower in normohormonal compared with classic primary hyperparathyroidism (56.8 vs 73.3%, P < .0001). Rates of hypocalcemia were similar for normohormonal and classic primary hyperparathyroidism (14.6% vs 11.9%, P = .44), but increasing percent intraoperative parathyroid hormone decrease beyond 65% disproportionately correlated with hypocalcemia in patients with normohormonal primary hyperparathyroidism. When intraoperative parathyroid hormone thresholds from the derivation cohort were applied, positive predictive values for cure were 97% and 94% for normohormonal and classic primary hyperparathyroidism, respectively; negative predictive values for hypocalcemia were 89% for both groups. For both cohorts combined, a minimal intraoperative parathyroid hormone of 50% provided similar cure rates between groups (95.4% vs 93.8%, P = .42), whereas intraoperative parathyroid hormone exceeding 65% correlated with a greater risk of hypocalcemia in normohormonal compared with classic primary hyperparathyroidism (13.4% vs 6.9%, P = .02).

This multi-institutional study externally validated that intraoperative parathyroid hormone decrease of 50-65% predicts cure and hypocalcemia in patients with normohormonal primary hyperparathyroidism.