[Hormone secreting ability in patients with parathyroid autograft]

In order to elucidate the function of parathyroid autograft, we determined the plasma parathyroid hormone (PTH) levels in the blood from cubital veins in two patients who had parathyroid autotransplantation after total parathyroidectomy. The first patient with chronic renal failure had been treated by hemodialysis for the past nine years and showed marked symptoms due to secondary hyperparathyroidism for five years. The second patient showed an evidence of recurrence of parathyroid cancer three years after the initial operation carried out elsewhere. The parathyroid tissue of 80 mg was sliced into 25 pieces and transplanted into separate pockets in one of the brachioradial muscles of the forearm. These patients showed an increase in plasma PTH levels two weeks after surgery. Plasma calcium level returned to the normal range three months after operation. Artificial hypocalcemia was induced by an injection of porcine calcitonin at ten months after surgery and a reserve of PTH secretion was tested. An increase of plasma C-PTH and N-PTH levels were recognized in the two patients as well as in the normal healthy volunteers. It was shown that parathyroid autograft has sufficient function to maintain normocalcemia and a reserve of function to respond against an artificially induced hypocalcemia at the tenth month after autografting.