Ján Podoba, Pavol Povinec
Primary hyperparathyroidism is a generalised disorder of calcium, phosphate and bone metabolism caused by long-lasting oversecretion of parathyroid hormone. From laboratory point of view it is characterised by hypercalcemia together with increased parathyroid hormone concentration in serum. Over the past 30 years, there has been a shift in the clinical presentation of primary hyperparathyroidism from a disorder associated with overt skeletal and renal disease to an asymptomatic form. This was caused by indirect screening of hypercalcemia in some developed countries and by more frequent serum calcium examination in our country compared with the recent past. The diagnostics of primary hyperparathyroidism became much easier by introduction of assessment of intact parathyroid hormone into routine practice. Localisation of abnormal parathyroid tissue is of important value due to increasingly used mini invasive surgical procedures.