HISTOPATHOLOGICAL DIAGNOSIS OF PARATHYROID DISEASES

Hyperparathyroidism is the predominant disease of the parathyroid glan d. This disease is nowadays quite common and is often diagnosed at an earlier stage, mainly by means of serum calcium determinations on wide indications. This means that when detected, the glandular abnormaliti es may be less advanced, which could hamper differentiation of adenoma from chief cell hyperplasia, and of normal glands from slightly hyper plastic ones. Normal glands and pathological glands both show wide var iations in size, cellular composition and arrangement, as described in this article. The usefulness of applying fat staining to distinguish between normal and abnormal glands is also reported. It is important t o bear in mind that the parathyroid diagnosis is in fact an indirect d iagnosis based on the assessment of an associated gland or glands.