1996 Volume 29 Issue 7 Pages 1131-1137
The incidence of hypoparathyroidism in dialysis patients has increased in recent years, however the pathogenesis and clinical outcome of this disease are still unknown. In order to investigate the clinical characteristics of hypoparathyroidism in dialysis patients, we compared the features of patients with hypoparathyroidism, difined by serum intact PTH levels below 65pg/ml (low-PTH (L) group), to the remainder of patients (non-low (NL) group) in a group of 183 hemodialysis (HD) and 37 CAPD patients. HD and CAPD patients composed 35.0%, and 63.2% of L group respectively. The characteristics of L group were 1) a higher prevalence of hypoparathyroidism in CAPD patients than HD patients, 2) shorter duration of dialysis in HD patients, 3) greater frequency of hypercalcemia in HD patients. No differences were seen between the two groups in age distribution, original renal diseases, and occurrence of bone symptoms. The PTH values of L group in HD and CAPD patients remained low throughout the duration of dialysis. No major clinical problems and complications have occurred in patients with hypoparathyroidism to date, however long-term clinical outcome in these patients should be observed.
