Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: The postoperative and idiopathic (autoimmune) hypoparathyroidism are the most frequent causes of hypocalcaemia with low parathyroid hormone level. Moderate chronic hypocalcaemia frequently is asymptomatic, thus the prevalence of hypocalcaemia with low parathyroid hormone level in the general population remains unknown. Therefore, the aim of this study is to assess the prevalence of hypocalcaemia with low parathyroid hormone level in a representative sample of Polish elderly population.

Description of methods/design: The study was carried out as a part of the nationwide PolSenior project (Medical, psychological and socioeconomic aspects of aging in Poland) in the population of randomly selected 5695 participants (2899 males and 2796 females) using the national PESEL database (the National Electronic System of Population Records). Serum calcium, phosphates, albumin, creatinine, 25-OH-D3 and serum intact PTH concentrations were assessed in 4270 participants accounting for 75.0% of the study group. Serum calcium corrected for albumins lower than 8.4 mg/dl was scored as hypocalcaemia. Hypoparathyroidism was diagnosed when hypocalcaemia was accompanied by low serum intact PTH (<15 pg/ml) concentration.

Results: Only in 10 participants hypocalcaemia with low PTH were identified including 6 of 2213 (0.27%) males and 4 of 2057 (0.19%) females. The prevalence of primary hypoparathyroidism in the Polish elderly population was estimated at 0.25%. The median levels of corrected calcium and phosphates in participants with hypocalcaemia and low parathyroid hormone level were 7.99 (7.02–8.25) mg/dl and 3.44 (2.98–5.68) mg/dl, respectively. Only in two subjects serum calcium level was below 7.0 mg/dl. Two out of 10 participants with hypoparathyroidism had serum vitamin D level lower than recommended (<30 ng/ml). None of the participants with hypoparathyroidism were receiving calcium or vitamin D supplementation.

Conclusions: The prevalence of such a rare disease as primary hypoparathyroidism is quite high in the polish elderly population. In most subjects hypocalcaemia was mild, asymptomatic and remained undiagnosed.

Declaration of interest: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest that could be perceived as prejudicing the impartiality of the research project.

Funding: This work was supported, however funding details unavailable.