MDA Surgeons Advocate Early Surgical Treatment for Elderly Patients with Hyperactive Parathyroid Gland

Elderly patients with an overactive parathyroid gland (hyperparathyroidism) should receive surgical treatment before they begin to exhibit the advanced objective consequences of the disease, such as osteoporosis (brittle or fragile bones caused by a loss of calcium deposition in underlying bone), according to surgeons from M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, TX...

...Hyperparathyroidism occurs when the parathyroid glands produce excessive amounts of parathyroid hormone and lose the ability to autoregulate. The result is a high serum calcium level. The parathyroid glands reside in the front of the neck behind the thyroid gland and they secrete parathyroid hormone (PTH), which regulates the amount of calcium to be deposited in bones and blood.

Approximately 100,000 new cases of hyperparathyroidism are diagnosed each year. Hyperparathyroidism is more common in the elderly, and particularly in women. The disease affects nearly 13 percent of women over the age of 65. It can be diagnosed on the basis of results from from routine blood sample. Serum calcium and intact parathyroid hormone tests are not expensive.

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