Hyperparathyroid crisis: clinical and pathologic studies of 14 patients

A study is presented of 14 patients with hyperparathyroid crisis treated at the Massachusetts General Hospital between 1964 and 1978. These patients showed diverse clinical manifestations that were indistinguishable from those in patients with pseudohyperparathyroidism. Their symptoms varied from progressive fatigue, malaise, and weakness to those related to the gastrointestinal and urinary tracts. The one biochemical alteration commonly found among these patients was the rapid increase in the serum calcium. There was a concomitant rise in the BUN in 50% of the patients and in the creatinine in 80%. The diagnosis was established by an elevated immunoreactive parathyroid hormone (PTH) level in all eight patients (100%) who had the radioimmunoassay; by the presence of subperiosteal resorption of the phalanges in six of the eight patients (75%); and in three of four patients (75%) by the loss of the lamina dura of the teeth. The 12 patients who had surgery all survived; the two who did not died. Thirteen patients (93%) had a neoplasm--an adenoma in 12 and a carcinoma in one. One patient had hyperplasia (7%). Nine patients (64%) received hypocalcemic drug therapy. The serum calcium temporarily fell to 12 mg/100 ml in five patients (56%) but failed to budge in four (44%). Simultaneous treatment with saline infusion, furosemide and with hypocalcemic drugs over a prolonged period compounded the difficulty at operation by increasing interstitial edema. Our findings from this study show prompt surgical intervention as the ideal treatment for hyperparathyroid crisis, preferably, within 72 hours of the acute onset of symptoms.