Clinico-Pathological Study of Symptomatic Hyperparathyroidism: Is it a Different Phenotype Expression of Hyperparathyroidism?

Despite the popularity of auto analyzers in urban areas of the country the incidence of asymptomatic hyperparathyroidism has not markedly increased and symptomatic diseases are regularly seen in all major institutions. The present single-institution analysis of proven hyperparathyroidism in the last 16 years was aimed at comparing the demographic, clinical, and pathological characteristics of symptomatic and asymptomatic primary hyperparathyroidism and comparing those with the asymptomatic diseases seen in developed countries. A retrospective chart review of 332 patients was done and 29 (8.7%) were asymptomatic. The asymptomatic patients were older than the symptomatic patients and showed significantly low disease severity features like serum PTH and tumor weight. However, 48.3% of the subset had serum PTH levels 3 times above the upper value of the reference level and the tumor weight was considerably high compared to that of the counterparts in developed countries. The demographic, clinical, and glandular pathology features of asymptomatic primary hyperparathyroid patients differ from those of similar patients in developed countries.