Clinical Overview > Condition/ Syndrome > Parathyroid adenoma

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Sachiko-Tsukamoto Kawashima Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism, National Hospital Organization Kyoto Medical Center, Kyoto, Japan
Department of Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism Tango Central Hospital, Kyoto, Japan

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Takeshi Usui Clinical Research Institute

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Yohei Ueda Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism, National Hospital Organization Kyoto Medical Center, Kyoto, Japan

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Maiko-Kakita Kobayashi Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism, National Hospital Organization Kyoto Medical Center, Kyoto, Japan

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Mika Tsuiki Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism, National Hospital Organization Kyoto Medical Center, Kyoto, Japan

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Kanako Tanase-Nakao Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism, National Hospital Organization Kyoto Medical Center, Kyoto, Japan

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Kazutaka Nanba Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism, National Hospital Organization Kyoto Medical Center, Kyoto, Japan

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Tetsuya Tagami Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism, National Hospital Organization Kyoto Medical Center, Kyoto, Japan

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Mitsuhide Naruse Clinical Research Institute

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Yoshiki Watanabe Department of Head and Neck Surgery, National Hospital Organization Kyoto Medical Center, 1-1 Mukaihata-cho, Fukakusa, Fushimi-ku, Kyoto 612-8555, Japan

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Ryo Asato Department of Head and Neck Surgery, National Hospital Organization Kyoto Medical Center, 1-1 Mukaihata-cho, Fukakusa, Fushimi-ku, Kyoto 612-8555, Japan

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Sumiko Kato Osaka Saiseikai Ibaraki Hospital, Osaka, Japan

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Akira Shimatsu Clinical Research Institute

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Summary

Parathyroid cystic adenomas are often misdiagnosed as thyroid cysts and routine preoperative diagnostic tools, such as ultrasonography (US) or 99m technetium-sestamibi (99mTc-MIBI) scans, cannot clearly distinguish between these entities. We present a 67-year-old hypercalcemic woman with a cervical cystic lesion who had negative sestamibi scan results. Her laboratory data indicated primary hyperparathyroidism (serum calcium concentration 14.0 mg/dl, phosphate concentration 2.3 mg/dl, and intact parathyroid hormone (PTH) concentration 239 pg/ml). The cervical US and computed tomography scans revealed a large and vertically long cystic mass (12×11×54 mm). A mass was located from the upper end of the left thyroid lobe to the submandibular region and was not clearly distinguishable from the thyroid. For preoperative definitive diagnosis, we carried out a parathyroid fine-needle aspiration (FNA) and PTH assay (PTH–FNA) of liquid aspirated from the cyst. The intact PTH–FNA concentration was 1.28×106 pg/ml, and the patient was diagnosed with primary hyperparathyroidism due to a cystic mass. She underwent a left upper parathyroidectomy and her serum calcium and intact PTH concentration immediately decreased to normal levels. This report describes the usefulness of PTH–FNA for localizing and differentiating an atypical functional parathyroid lesion from nonfunctional tissue in primary hyperparathyroidism.

Learning points

  • Cystic parathyroid lesions, even in the case of elevated PTH levels, can produce negative results in 99mTc-MIBI scans.

  • Preoperative diagnosis of parathyroid cysts detectable on US is possible by parathyroid FNA and PTH assay (PTH–FNA) of liquid aspirated from the cyst, if malignancy is not suspected.

  • PTH–FNA could be helpful in the differential diagnosis of an equivocal cervical tumor.

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Deep Dutta Departments of Endocrinology and Metabolism

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Chitra Selvan Departments of Endocrinology and Metabolism

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Manoj Kumar Departments of Endocrinology and Metabolism

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Saumik Datta Departments of Endocrinology and Metabolism

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Ram Narayan Das Pathology, IPGMER and SSKM Hospital, Room-9A, 4th Floor Ronald Ross Building, 244 AJC Bose Road, Calcutta 700020, India

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Sujoy Ghosh Departments of Endocrinology and Metabolism

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Satinath Mukhopadhyay Departments of Endocrinology and Metabolism

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Subhankar Chowdhury Departments of Endocrinology and Metabolism

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Summary

Parathyroid cysts are rare (0.8–3.41% of all parathyroid lesions) and usually arise secondary to cystic degeneration of parathyroid adenomas. Intrathyroidal parathyroid cysts are extremely rare with only three cases reported till date. We present a 24-year-old female with clinical and biochemical features of primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT; Ca2 +: 12.1 mg/dl; intact parathyroid hormone (iPTH): 1283 pg/ml) and poor radiotracer uptake with minimal residual uptake in the left thyroid lobe at 2 and 4 h on Tc99m sestamibi imaging. Neck ultrasonography (USG) revealed 0.6×1 cm parathyroid posterior left lobe of thyroid along with 22×18 mm simple thyroid cyst. USG-guided fine-needle aspiration (FNA) and needle tip iPTH estimation (FNA-iPTH) from parathyroid lesion was inconclusive (114 pg/ml), necessitating FNA of thyroid cyst, which revealed high iPTH (3480 pg/ml) from the aspirate. The patient underwent a left hemithyroidectomy. A >50% drop in serum iPTH 20 min after left hemithyroidectomy (29.4 pg/ml) along with histopathology suggestive of intrathyroidal cystic parathyroid adenoma (cystic lesion lined by chief cell variant parathyroid cells without any nuclear atypia, capsular or vascular invasion surrounded by normal thyroid follicles) confirmed that the parathyroid cyst was responsible for PHPT. This report highlights the importance of FNA-iPTH in localizing and differentiating a functional parathyroid lesion from nonfunctional tissue in PHPT.

Learning points

  • Fine-needle aspiration from suspected parathyroid lesion and needle tip iPTH (FNA-iPTH) estimation from the saline washing has an important role in localizing primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT).

  • FNA-iPTH estimation may help in differentiating functional from nonfunctional parathyroid lesion responsible for PHPT.

  • iPTH estimation from aspirate of an intrathyroid cyst is helpful in differentiating intrathyroidal parathyroid cyst from thyroid cyst.

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