Endocrine Abstracts

Background: In the last decades, the clinical profile of PHPT in Western Countries has changed from a highly symptomatic to a largely asymptomatic disease. However, a substantial stability in its clinical features has been reported in the last two decades. The usual management, including time to diagnosis and treatment, of PHPT during the Covid-19 pandemic has been changed and likely slowed down. Whether further changes in the clinical presentation of PHPT have occurred during the Covid-19 pandemic is currently unknown.

Patients: A retrospective survey was conducted in our series of 150 well-characterized consecutive PHPT patients, who were admitted to our Hospital between January 2012 and December 2021. Patients were initially subdivided according to the date of PHPT diagnosis in 2 consecutive 5-year period (n=79 and 71, respectively). The more recent group was then split into 2 subgroups before and after the Covid-19 Pandemic (i.e. 2017–2019, n=45; 2020–2021, n=26).

Results: In the last five-year period an increased rate of post menopausal women (P=0.011) and of patients with osteoporosis at any site (P=0.007) was found among PHPT patients compared to those in the previous five-year period. Furthermore a non significant reduction of “mild asymptomatic” patients was observed. After subdividing the last five-year period based on the pandemic, the increased rate of post menopausal women was confirmed in the Covid-19 period compared to the remaining ones (P=0.022). In addition, the number of criteria for surgery met by asymptomatic PHPT patients has become statistically higher in the pandemic period than in preceding periods (P=0.017).

Conclusions During the Covid-19 pandemic, when surgery for benign diseases and hospital visits have been restricted, only minor changes in the PHPT clinical presentation have occurred. An increased rate of postmenopausal women with osteoporosis was diagnosed with PHPT.