Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Permanent hypoparathyroidism is the most common complication of thyroid surgery with a reported incidence of 2-10% depending on the observation time, extent of surgery and underlying disease, with higher risk for total thyroidectomy and Graves disease/thyroid cancer. European data on chronic hypoparathyroidism have been reported from several countries, especially Scandinavia. We therefore aimed to add more information from Central Europe.

Methods: In this ongoing prospective Austrian multi-center observational registry at the Medical University of Graz and the Medical University of Innsbruck, we include adult patients with hypoparathyroidism of all etiologies. Routine clinical and laboratory data is collected for all patients. Extensive neurocognitive assessment with comparison to a normative collective is performed in a subgroup of patients and will be reported separately, including the Trail Making Test A and B (TMT-A and TMT-B).

Results: So far, we included 47 patients. 39 are women (83%), and the average age is 61 ± 17 years. 13% have nonsurgical etiologies (ie. AIRE or 22q11 mutations, “idiopathic“), and 87 % had postsurgical hypoparathyroidism. Both hypercalcemia and hypocalcemia were common. Paresthesia and tetany was reported by most patients. In postsurgical hypoparathyroidism, the median time between surgery and diagnosis of hypoparathyroidism was 5.5 years (range: 0–67 years). Treatment included calcium, active vitamin D, vitamin D, hydrochlorothiazide, magnesium and teriparatide. Three patients were started on rhPTH 1–84 (Natpar) since early 2018. TMT-A and TMT-B were performed in 15 patients and showed slower task resolution for TMT-A: 32 (IQR: 22–38) vs 29 seconds (IQR: 24–37), P = 0.233 and TMT-B (median = 78; IQR: 72–109 vs 58 seconds, IQR: 51–89, P = 0.001).

Conclusion: In this prospective registry, we report and continue to collect real-world data of hypoparathyroid patients in Austria with the goal to increase awareness and facilitate optimization of care of this rare disease.