Elevated serum parathyroid hormone (PTH) is associated with increased risk of cardiovascular death, including sudden cardiac death, in patients with and without parathyroid disease.
There are a considerable number of patients with concomitant thyroid and parathyroid disease; this justifies the routine analyses of calcemia and PTH level in patients preparing for thyroidectomy, and sets up the ground for the thyroid investigations in HPT.
Therefore, we sought to rigorously examine the PTH 3'-UTR in patients with primary and secondary parathyroid disorders, including primary parathyroid hyperplasia, secondary parathyroid hyperplasia, sporadic parathyroid adenoma and familial hypoparathyroidism of unknown genetic basis.
Based on the absence of identifiable DNA sequence alterations in these forms of parathyroid dysfunction, it is unlikely that mutation of the PTH 3'-UTR contributes frequently to their pathogenesis.
Hyperparathyroidism refers to a term representing a wide spectrum of parathyroid disorders that are characterized by the increased production of parathyroid hormone.
In addition, our identification of a microsatellite polymorphism of the PTH gene should help further segregation studies of this locus in families with parathyroid disorders.