Do Symptoms Correlate with Degree of Hypercalcemia in Primary Hyperparathyroidism?

Primary hyperparathyroidism is thought to cause various nonspecific symptoms (e.g., fatigue, musculoskeletal pain, depression). Presumably, presence of such symptoms would correlate with the severity of a patient's biochemical abnormalities. To determine whether this presumption is valid, researchers in Wisconsin queried 229 consecutive patients with primary hyperparathyroidism about 15 constitutional, musculoskeletal, psychiatric, gastrointestinal, and urinary symptoms.

No symptom was more prevalent in the 78 patients with serum calcium ≥11.2 mg/dL than in the 150 patients with lower levels; in fact, three symptoms (bone and joint pain, depression, and constipation) were significantly more prevalent in patients with lower serum calcium leve…