| dc.description.abstract | Hypoparathyroidism is an orphan disease with ill-defned epidemiology that is subject to geographic variability. We conducted this study to assess the demographics, etiologic distribution, treatment patterns and complication frequency of
patients with chronic hypoparathyroidism in Turkey. This is a retrospective, cross-sectional database study, with collaboration of 30 endocrinology centers located in 20 cities across seven geographical regions of Turkey. A total of 830 adults
(mean age 49.6±13.5 years; female 81.2%) with hypoparathyroidism (mean duration 9.7±9.0 years) were included in
the fnal analysis. Hypoparathyroidism was predominantly surgery-induced (n=686, 82.6%). The insulting surgeries was
carried out mostly due to benign causes in postsurgical group (SG) (n=504, 73.5%) while patients in nonsurgical group
(NSG) was most frequently classifed as idiopathic (n=103, 71.5%). The treatment was highly dependent on calcium salts
(n=771, 92.9%), calcitriol (n=786, 94.7%) and to a lower extent cholecalciferol use (n=635, 76.5%) while the rate of
parathyroid hormone (n=2, 0.2%) use was low. Serum calcium levels were most frequently kept in the normal range (sCa
8.5–10.5 mg/dL, n=383, 46.1%) which might be higher than desired for this patient group. NSG had a lower mean plasma
PTH concentration (6.42±5.53 vs. 9.09±7.08 ng/l, p<0.0001), higher daily intake of elementary calcium (2038±1214
vs. 1846±1355 mg/day, p=0.0193) and calcitriol (0.78±0.39 vs. 0.69±0.38 mcg/day, p=0.0057), a higher rate of chronic
renal disease (9.7% vs. 3.6%, p=0.0017), epilepsy (6.3% vs. 1.6%, p=0.0009), intracranial calcifcations (11.8% vs. 7.3%,
p<0.0001) and cataracts (22.2% vs. 13.7%, p=0.0096) compared to SG. In conclusion, postsurgical hypoparathyroidism
is the dominant etiology of hypoparathyroidism in Turkey while the nonsurgical patients have a higher disease burden with
greater need for medications and increased risk of complications than the postsurgical patients. | en_US |
