Opportunistic Assessment for Parathyroid Adenoma on CT: A Retrospective Cohort Study Evaluating Primary...

BACKGROUND. Primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) is underdiagnosed. Opportunistic imaging-based parathyroid gland assessment is a proposed strategy for identifying patients at increased risk of undiagnosed PHPT. However, whether this approach is likely to identify individuals with clinically significant disease is unknown. OBJECTIVE. This study's objective was to assess for associations of the presence of an enlarged parathyroid gland on contrast-enhanced CT with clinical outcomes causally related to PHPT. METHODS. This retrospective cohort study included patients 18 years old or older with at least one contrast-enhanced chest or neck CT examination performed from January 2012 to December 2012, at least one noncontrast CT examination covering the chest or neck region without a date restriction, and at least one clinical encounter in the health system from January 2022 to December 2022. A neuroradiologist reviewed the CT examinations to determine the presence versus absence of an enlarged parathyroid gland on the 2012 study. Patient demographics, serum calcium results, and diagnosis codes for clinical outcomes causally related to PHPT were extracted from the EHR. Calcium results and diagnosis codes were classified as preexisting if documented before and as incident if documented after the 2012 contrast-enhanced CT examination. RESULTS. The cohort included 1198 patients (593 men and 605 women; mean age, 51.6 years), of whom 43 (3.6%) were assessed as having an enlarged parathyroid gland on the 2012 contrast-enhanced CT examination. PHPT was diagnosed in 16.3% of patients with, versus 0.3% of patients without, an enlarged parathyroid gland (p < .001). After adjustment for age, sex, race, and ethnicity, the presence of an enlarged parathyroid gland on contrast-enhanced CT was associated with significantly increased odds of preexisting nephrolithiasis (OR = 2.71; p = .03), hypercalcemia (OR = 5.30; p < .001), and PHPT (OR = 12.59; p = .008) as well as increased odds of incident osteopenia or osteoporosis (OR = 2.78; p = .008), nephrolithiasis (OR = 4.95; p < .001), hypercalcemia (OR = 7.58; p < .001), and PHPT (OR = 148.01; p < .001). CONCLUSION. An enlarged parathyroid gland indicated increased risk of PHPT as well as increased risk of preexisting and incident clinical conditions causally related to PHPT. CLINICAL IMPACT. Opportunistic CT-based assessment is a promising strategy for identifying patients at increased risk of undiagnosed PHPT; such assessment could potentially prevent some PHPT-related complications through earlier diagnosis and treatment.