SHPT is a common complication in CKD, and it is followed by disorders of calcium and phosphorus metabolism, abnormal PTH secretion, and parathyroid hyperplasia. Serum PTH plays a critical role in the maintenance of calcium and phosphate levels. Unlike patients with PHPT which is independent secretion of PTH by the parathyroid tissue, patients with SHPT have a compensatory PTH secretion due to hypocalcaemia [20]. Therefore, in patients with SHPT, the serum calcium level can be increased or remain normal. In our study all patient had higher serum PTH but only 23.33% patients showed higher serum calcium. We found 23 patients had punctate and annular calcification in the hyperplastic parathyroid glands and annular calcification might be a special sign of SHPT [26-28]. Soft tissue and vascular calcifications are commonly present in end-stage CKD patients, secondary to disturbances in calcium and phosphate balance and secondary to hyperparathyroidism, which may explain why the parathyroid glands were more prone to appear calcification in patients with SHPT [29, 30]. Previous study showed an association between serum AKP and vascular calcification via modulation of the pyrophosphate pathway[31, 32]. Serum PTH can increase the bone metabolic conversion to elevate the serum AKP level[20]. Therefore, as we reported calcification of parathyroid glands might be correlated with serum PTH and AKP.
For severe SHPT parathyroidectomy remains the best treatment option when drug treatment fails. However, surgical results among SHPT patients are less satisfactory than those among patients with PHPT due to incomplete intraoperative identification of all parathyroid glands [21]. Therefore, preoperative imaging and localization are critical to a successful operation. US is the most used imaging investigation for the advantage of low cost and simple manipulation, but limited in the detection of ectopic parathyroid glands and in the dependence on the examiner’s experience[22]. CT may be necessary to locate parathyroid glands precisely, especially for the ectopic glands of mediastinum, to avoid recurrent laryngeal nerve injuries caused by unnecessary dissections[7]. MRI has the advantage of no radiation and has a discreetly increased sensitivity than CT, and it is especially useful in detecting mediastinal parathyroid glands[22]. Different from the above anatomical imaging, 99mTc-MIBI imaging is a functional exploration with the advantage of detecting ectopic glands and it is based on the different washout rate between the thyroid tissue and parathyroid hyperplasia[33]. 99mTc-MIBI scintigraphy has high sensitivity and specificity, but also has multiple limitation, such as lacks precise anatomical location of the lesion [34], making the differential diagnosis of parathyroid hyperplasia from thyroid lesions difficult. SPECT/CT is significantly superior to 99mTc-MIBI scintigraphy in the detection of parathyroid abnormalities because it can provide more precise anatomic localization particularly for localizing ectopic lesions, identification of supernumerary glands and parathyroid glands with the lowest 99mTc-MIBI uptake [11, 35].
In our study, we directly compared US, dual-phase 99mTc-MIBI scintigraphy, early SPECT/CT and delayed SPECT/CT in the SHPT patients. The overall sensitivity and accuracy of early phase SPECT/CT was higher than the other techniques and also slightly higher than the previous studies[21, 22]. For detecting ectopic parathyroid glands, the sensitivity of early SPECT/CT was significantly higher than US and 99mTc-MIBI scintigraphy, and the percentage was similar to that of the previous study (90.5%)[6]. Our results showed that early SPECT/CT was superior to the other methodologies to detect parathyroid lesion in SHPT patients. Hybrid SPECT/CT can provide not only functional information acquired through SPECT but also the accurate and anatomic depiction of parathyroid gland location, size, and adjacent structures through CT, especially the ectopic and supernumerary parathyroid glands. With delayed SPECT/CT, two investigational group had reported a high sensitivity of 59.3%[20] and 85%[19], and in our study the sensitivity is 73.4%. In our investigation, we found that 99mTc-MIBI uptake of some hyperplastic parathyroid glands on early SPECT/CT were slightly higher than the background but lower than the thyroid and further clearance in delayed SPECT/CT causing false negative on the delayed SPECT/CT imaging. Schachter et al. reported that delayed SPECT/CT may be nondiagnostic when similar washout rates between thyroid and parathyroid tissue are found[36]. So, we may suggest early SPECT/CT in combination with dual-phase 99mTc-MIBI scintigraphy as the routine preoperative evaluation, and delayed SPECT/CT may not be necessary due to entailing more radiation than early SPECT/CT alone. Meanwhile 99mTc-MIBI scintigraphy cannot be replaced by early SPECT/CT for the former is a rough indication of the presence of ectopic parathyroid gland and assists in determining SPECT/CT scan range.
Most patients in our study had four proved lesions which remind us to identify as many as four parathyroid gland lesions as possible when diagnosing SHPT. As we found all of the calcified parathyroid glands (45 lesions) were confirmed to be parathyroid hyperplasia by pathology, reminding us that if calcified nodules were seen in the parathyroid region, parathyroid hyperplasia should be suspected. However large samples and multicenter studies are still needed to confirm these.
The main reason of low sensitivity of US is believed to be the frequent misdiagnosis of inferior parathyroid lesions, especially the mediastinal ectopic parathyroid glands. The manipulator’s experience for accurate determination of lesions is also one of the indispensable factors that can’t be ignored. It was reported that the sensitivity of US for SHPT diagnosis was ranging from 46.24% to 91.5%[17, 19, 20], which was similar to our result (75.65%).
Our observations show that the sensitivity of 99mTc-MIBI scintigraphy is the lowest in the four methods. The reasons are as follows. First, although 99mTc-MIBI scintigraphy can effectively detect the ectopic parathyroid gland, they can only show a general increase in radioactivity and cannot clearly distinguish the number of lesions when multiple parathyroid gland lesions are existed. Secondly, some hyperplastic parathyroid glands p-glycoprotein was positive and 99mTc-MIBI was quickly eliminated from the parathyroid glands leading to the negative uptake images of scintigraphy [37]. Thirdly, 99mTc-MIBI scintigraphy was related to the size and weight of the parathyroid glands, and the smaller parathyroid gland lesions were easy to be omitted[22, 38]. Fourthly, the lesions located behind the thyroid gland and with the similar 99mTc-MIBI uptake were difficult to detect on the scintigraphy but those lesions were identified on SPECT/CT. In a meta-analysis the pooled sensitivity of 99mTc-MIBI scintigraphy in SHPT was 58% [39] which is a little higher than our result.
David Taieb et al. [38] reported the most common cause of false positive results on parathyroid scintigraphy was the presence of thyroid nodules, thymoma, metastatic or inflammatory lymph nodes, and skeletal brown tumors may also represent rare potential false-positive lesions. However, in our study multiple false positive lesions found on US, early and delayed SPECT/CT were mostly confirmed to be lymph nodes followed by thyroid nodules. The most likely explanation is that we have lesser false positive lesions and all our patients were SHPT not PHPT. One false positive lesion found on the 99mTc-MIBI scintigraphy was the focal 99mTc-MIBI uptake of the manubrium sterni. Previous study supposed that the 99mTc-MIBI uptake of bone might reflect the presence of active metabolic bone disease, but did not reflect the changes that occurred in microstructure of bone[40]. However, this remains to be evaluated further. Besides, the specificity of early SPECT/CT in our study is lower than the previous study (75%)[6] probably due to the small number of true negative cases.
Our study is limited by its retrospective design and relatively small cohort of patients. Therefore, future prospective randomized studies of preoperative imaging modalities are needed for more accurate and objective investigations.