title: Primary hyperparathyroidism in Hong Kong: an analysis of 44 cases.
abstract: Primary hyperparathyroidism is increasingly being diagnosed subsequent to the detection of hypercalcaemia using multichannel auto-analyser screening. This paper provides a local picture of the clinical presentation and management of primary hyperparathyroidism. A retrospective review was conducted of 44 patients with primary hyperparathyroidism who were treated at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital between January 1987 and July 1996. Twenty-five (56.8%) of the patients were asymptomatic. Only three (6.8%) patients gave radiograms that had features indicating primary hyperparathyroidism; seven (15.9%) had renal stones. The patients underwent one or more of the following localisation procedures: computerised tomography, ultrasonography, thallium-technetium subtraction scanning, and technetium Tc 99m sestamibi scanning. The latter method was the most sensitive (64.3%). Ten adenomas that could not be localised by any of these procedures were successfully removed during surgery. Surgery was successful in 94.4% of cases and surgical outcome was comparable to that reported in the literature.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, 30 Gascoigne Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong.
authors.forename: F KW
authors.initials: FK
authors.lastname: Chan
authors.forename: S C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Tiu
authors.forename: K L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.forename: T K
authors.initials: TK
authors.lastname: AuYong
authors.forename: L F
authors.initials: LF
authors.lastname: Tang