Note that most patients with primary hyperparathyroidism (due to a benign tumor in their neck) have PTH levels ranging from 50 to 150. When patients have PTH levels above 200 it is because their tumor is very old (usually this means over 15 years old) and the tumor is composed of MANY cells. If your PTH level is over 200, then some doctor somewhere was asleep at the wheel for at least 10 years. This should not be allowed to happen, and the amount of destruction to your body is generally worse. Also note that about 15% of patients that have a parathyroid tumor in their neck will have PTH levels that are in the "normal range". Let us say that again... about 15% of patients with hyperparathyroidism will have high calcium levels and NORMAL PTH levels. Realize that this is still hyperparathyroidism and they still have a parathyroid tumor in their neck... We say their PTH level is "inappropriately normal". In other words, it still shows that there is a tumor full of crazy, out of control cells because if they were normal parathyroid cells they would sense the high calcium and they would shut down. If your calcium is high, and your PTH is not near zero (consistently 20 or below), then you almost certainly have a parathyroid tumor. GET IT OUT!
One final note about this graph which shows Parathyroid Hormone (PTH) levels in patients with primary hyperparathyroidism. This graph is different from the graph at the bottom of our diagnosis page which shows CALCIUM levels in patients with primary hyperparathyroidism. These graphs have the same shape and thus you could confuse them... but one looks at the hormone levels in the blood, and the other looks at the calcium level in the blood. These two graphs are central to the diagnosis of hyperparathyroidism.
Approximately 25%-30% of patients with primary hyperparathyroidism who have two parathyroid adenomas while having two normal glands. This is one of the reasons why parathyroid surgery is tricky--because some people will have one tumor while others will have more than one. This is why the most experienced (best) parathyroid surgeons will examine all four parathyroid glands during the operation--so a second tumor is not left behind. Surgeons who do lots of parathyroid surgery will not just take one parathyroid tumor out and quit the operation, instead they will spend the necessary time to make sure there isn't a second tumor (watch our surgery video to see Dr Norman find a second tumor). The most common reason that people have an unsuccessful parathyroid operation is because the surgeon couldn't find the tumor. The second most common cause for people to have a failed parathyroid operation is because they had two tumors and the surgeon removed only one. We operate on an average of two people every day because they went to an "expert parathyroid surgeon" who operated to remove a tumor they saw on a scan, watched the hormone decrease by half, and quit the operation without looking for a second tumor. Since 25%-30% of people with hyperparathyroidism will have two parathyroid tumors, then it is impossible for any surgeon to provide you with a long-term cure rate (beyond 5 years) if they only look at one gland and quit the operation. As you chose your surgeon, ask hard questions and be careful of surgeons who claim to be experts, but will only look at one gland and measure hormone levels. This does not take any expertise--any surgery intern can take out a tumor shown on a scan and not check the others.
An even rarer situation occurs in about 1.5 percent of all patients with primary hyperparathyroidism will have an enlargement of all four parathyroid glands, a term called parathyroid hyperplasia. In this instance, all of the parathyroid glands become enlarged and produce too much parathyroid hormone. This is a much less common scenario but the end results for the patient are identical. On a different page of this web site we discuss the importance of an experienced parathyroid surgeon. Now you can see why experience is so important--sometimes the disease is caused by one gland, sometimes two glands, and rarely three or all four glands. Experience matters when operating on parathyroid glands! One last word on parathyroid hyperplasia; it is not very common. Unless you are on kidney dialysis or have taken lithium for over 20 years, we can tell you the the chance of you having parathyroid hyperplasia as the cause of your hyperparathyroidism is less than 1%. Please do not dwell on this. If your doctor tells you BEFORE your operation that he/she thinks you have hyperplasia, then get up and walk out. There is no way to know this ahead of time (unless you have been on kidney dialysis). It makes no difference to you how many parathyroid glands are bad as long as you have an experienced surgeon who can competently, safely and quickly assess all four parathyroid glands. Please, we beg you, forget you ever heard the term "4-gland hyperplasia"... you do NOT have this... so don't