Insulin sensitivity in normocalcaemic primary hyperparathyroidism

Abstract

An altered glucose tolerance and an increased prevalence of diabetes mellitus in primary hyperparathyroidism have been reported due to an increased insulin resistance in these patients [1]. Furthermore, a significant relationship between hypercalcaemia and insulin sensitivity has been reported [2]. ‘‘Normocalcaemic’’ primary hyperparathyroidism (NCpHPT), recently recognized by some authors as a peculiar early presentation of symptomatic pHPT, is not well clinically characterized, as the few data in literature are questionable since its rigorous classification following all the strict diagnostic criteria often was not performed [3]. In particular, at our knowledge, only one case–control study recently reported a non-significantly different insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance in these patients compared to healthy volunteers [4]. Thus, in our large series of pHPT patients we sought to investigate glucose tolerance, estimates of insulin sensitivity and secretion in the subset of patients rigorously classified as NCpHPT. Patients and methods