Thyroid : official journal of the American Thyroid Association
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Permanent hypoparathyroidism has become the most common and the most severe complication after thyroid surgery. In our experience, some patients suffer from permanent hypocalcemia and related symptoms despite normal parathyroid hormone (PTH) values after thyroid surgery. The aim of this work was to present a series of such patients with long-term hypocalcemia and normal PTH values to evaluate to what extent parathyroid function was impaired by thyroidectomy, and determine whether irregularities of bone and calcium metabolism were associated with this phenomenon. ⋯ An intraoperative injury to the parathyroid glands or their vascularization is the likely contributing factor to the development of permanent hypocalcemia with normal PTH values after thyroid surgery. The remaining parathyroid tissue is subject to a maximum stimulus by hypocalcemia and, therefore, is able to maintain PTH values in the normal range. These are still too low to re-establish normal serum calcium levels. In these patients, the term "hypoparathyroidism" might be replaced with "parathyroid insufficiency."
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The increasing incidence of thyroid cancer in the United States is well documented. In this study, we assessed the incidence patterns by histologic type according to demographic and tumor characteristics to further our understanding of these cancers. ⋯ We conclude that the similar age-specific patterns and lack of geographical variation across the SEER racial/ethnic groups indicate that detection effects cannot completely explain the observed thyroid cancer incidence patterns as variation in the amount or quality of healthcare provided has been shown to vary by SEER racial/ethnic groups, gender, and age. We find that the variations in age-specific patterns by gender and across histologic types are intriguing and recommend that future etiologic investigation focus on exogenous and endogenous exposures that are experienced similarly by racial/ethnic groups, more strongly among women, and distinctively by age.