Case report: clinical pathological correlations in a case of primary parathyroid carcinoma

Carcinoma of parathyroid accounts for one to two percent of patients with primary hyperparathyroidism. A patient admitted to our medical center gave us the opportunity to follow the course of the clinical laboratory findings and the effect of treatment modalities on these laboratory measurements. The clinical course included hypercalcemia, hypophosphatemia, pancreatitis, consumptive coagulopathy, pancytopenia, and sepsis. As vitamin D3 plays and important role in calcium homeostasis, 1,25-(OH)2- vitamin D3 was measured at several points during the clinical course. These finding may serve to help understand some of the underlying control mechanisms involved in the hypercalcemic state.