title: Medullary sponge kidney and hyperparathyroidism--a puzzling association.
abstract: 28 adult patients with radiological evidence of medullary sponge kidney (MSK) were studied. Hypercalcemia and increased serum parathyroid hormone (PTH) values were found in 10 patients (36%). In 7 of them, parathyroid surgery was performed: a single adenoma was found in 6 cases and multiple-gland hyperplasia in 1 case. After surgery, 3 patients had normalization of calcium metabolism; 4 patients had persistence of hypercalciuria with progressive increase in serum PTH values (and recurrence of the adenoma in 1 case). Of the remaining patients, 10 (36%) had definite or marginal hypercalciuria, resulting from renal calcium leak in 8 and from intestinal calcium hyperabsorption in 2 of them. In 8 patients (28%), no evidence of disordered calcium metabolism was found. The association of MSK and hyperparathyroidism is not a chance occurrence. MSK might be a renal anatomical complication of primary hyperparathyroidism, or it might be regarded as an anatomic substrate--or rather as a consequence--of prolonged hypercalciuria, regardless of its pathogenesis. The lack of disordered calcium metabolism in a considerable number of patients, however, shows that the enigma of MSK is still far from being solved.
mesh_terms: D000236:Adenoma / Q000150:complications; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002118:Calcium / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006934:Hypercalcemia / Q000150:complications; D006961:Hyperparathyroidism / Q000150:complications*; D007669:Kidney Calculi / Q000150:complications; D008297:Male; D007691:Medullary Sponge Kidney / Q000150:complications*; D008875:Middle Aged; D010281:Parathyroid Hormone / Q000097:blood; D010282:Parathyroid Neoplasms / Q000150:complications
chemical_list: D010281:Parathyroid Hormone; D002118:Calcium