PANCREATITIS AND PRIMARY HYPERPARATHYROIDISM - 40 CASES

Background: Pancreatitis is associated with primary hyperparathyroidis m (PHPT) in 1.5-7% of cases. The relationship of cause and effect betw een the two diseases has been debated. Methods: To evaluate this relat ionship, the clinical, biochemical and pathological data on 1435 patie nts operated on for hyper parathyroidism (HPT) over the past 30 years were retrospectively reviewed. A total of 1224 of these patients had b iologically proven and cured PHPT and 211 patients had renal HPT (RHPT ). The diagnosis of pancreatitis (PTS) was based on a high serum amyla se level and/or abnormalities on ultrasound or computed tomography (CT ) scan explorations. Only patients without biliary stones were include d in the PTS group associated with HPT. Results: A total of 3.2% (n = 40) of patients with PHPT had PTS, which was acute in 18 cases, subacu te in 8 cases and chronic in 14 cases. This rate of PTS is higher than in a random hospital population. Surgical cure of HPT was followed by the spontaneous healing of 17/18 acute PTS, whereas six of the 22 pat ients with subacute or chronic PTS developed complications due to the evolution of their disease (diabetes, pancreatic duct stenosis treated by surgery). A single diseased gland was found in 27 patients with PT S, which is in favour of primary parathyroid disease, being responsibl e for, and not a consequence of, PTS. Only the serum calcium (13.0 vs 12.1 g/dL) level was significantly increased in PHPT patients with PTS , when compared to those without PTS, The calcium level is probably of major importance in the development of PTS, which was never encounter ed in 211 patients with RHPT, who had low calcium and high PTH levels. Conclusions: The data suggest that (i) the PTS-PHPT association is no t incidental; (ii) PTS is the consequence and not the cause of PHPT; ( iii) hypercalcaemia seems to be a major factor in the development of P TS in PHPT patients; and (iv) cure of PHPT leads to the healing of acu te PTS, whereas it does not affect the evolution of subacute and chron ic PTS.