OBJECTIVEHypoparathyroidism is one of the most serious complications of thyroidectomy. It is important to identify the parathyroid glands during thyroidectomy. In order to find an economic, simple and less traumatic way to identify the parathyroid glands and testify its feasibility, fine-needle aspiration of suspected parathyroid tissue was used to measure the parathyroid hormone (PTH) levels during the surgical procedure.

METHODSFrom Nov. 2011 to Apr. 2012, 50 patients were recruited for thyroid surgery in the Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Centre. During surgery, fine-needle aspiration of suspected tissues, including parathyroid gland, thyroid gland, muscle, fat tissue, and lymph node, was performed, the PTH levels were measured. In addition, the tissues above-mentioned were taken to pathological examination. Statistical processing was adopted to determine the sensitivity and specificity of intraoperative fine-needle aspiration with measurement of PTH level in finding the pathology of the parathyroid gland.

RESULTSThere were 237 tissues from 50 patients in total, and 45 of them were certified as the parathyroid glands by pathology. Intra-operative PTH (ioPTH) of the tissues in forty-four cases were higher than 600 ng/L, ioPTH of the tissues in one case was lower than 600 ng/L, and it was 160 ng/L. The highest ioPTH in other cases was 537.7 ng/L. The sensitivity was 97.8%. The specificity was 100%. The difference between the sensitivity and the specificity of two groups was not statistically significant, and P > 0.05. The level of PTH of parathyroid gland were much higher than other tissues, and P < 0.001.

CONCLUSIONSThe level of ioPTH of parathyroid gland were far higher than thyroid, muscle, fat, lymph node. It is an economic, fast and less traumatic way to identify the parathyroid gland by using the fine-needle aspiration of the parathyroid tissue with measurement of PTH levels. The sensitivity and the specificity are high. It can be used in the thyroidectomy to identify the parathyroid glands.