Parathyroid imaging: Comparison of methods in the evaluation of secondary hyperparathyroidism.

The combination of an increase in long-term survival and the availability of a relatively sensitive parathyroid hormone (PTH) assay has led to an increasing incidence of hyperparathyroidism (HPT) diagnosis in patients on regular dialysis treatment (RDT). Hitherto the diagnosis has been based on biochemical data and clinical grounds, as parathyroid (PT) imaging is limited in accuracy, reproducibility, safety and invasiveness [1, 2]. Today, 201TI and 99mTc subtraction imaging (sq, high resolution ultrasonography (US) and up-to-date computed tomography (CT) have been proposed as sensitive and specific tests for primary HPT imaging [4-7]. The aim of the present study was to assess on a group of patients on RDT the accuracy of these methods in relation to the degree of HPT