Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Ultrasound size of dog parathyroid glands may not show disease
By Secrest, Scott & Grimes, Janet·Published in Veterinary radiology & ultrasound : the official journal of the American College of Veterinary Radiology and the International Veterinary Radiology Association·2019·Department of Veterinary Biosciences and Diagnostic Imaging, United States·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Ultrasonographic size of the canine parathyroid gland may not correlate with histopathology.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A group of 49 dogs with high calcium levels underwent ultrasound exams of their parathyroid glands to check for abnormalities. The study found that the size of these glands did not reliably indicate whether they were normal or had issues like hyperplasia (enlargement), adenoma (benign tumor), or adenocarcinoma (cancer). While some patterns were noted, such as hyperplastic glands being smaller and adenocarcinomas being larger, there was significant overlap in sizes among the different conditions. This suggests that veterinarians should not rely solely on gland size when diagnosing parathyroid problems in dogs.
People also search for: dog high calcium levels treatment · parathyroid gland problems in dogs · dog parathyroid adenoma symptoms
Abstract
Accurate ultrasonographic differentiation of normal versus abnormal parathyroid glands is important for clinical workup and presurgical screening in dogs with hypercalcemia. In previous published studies, size has been the only ultrasonographic criterion correlated with histologic diagnoses of abnormal parathyroid glands. In this retrospective, cross-sectional study, the medical records of dogs with ultrasonographic examinations of the parathyroid glands and histologic diagnoses of parathyroid gland hyperplasia, adenoma, and adenocarcinoma were evaluated. Ultrasonographic characteristics were recorded for each gland and compared among histologic diagnosis groups. A total of 49 dogs and 59 parathyroid glands were sampled and assigned to the following groups for analyses: adenoma (n = 24), hyperplastic (n = 20), and adenocarcinoma (n = 15). There were no associations with dog age, sex, weight, breed; or gland laterality, location, ultrasonographic shape, or echogenicity among histologic diagnosis groups (P > .05). Parathyroid gland adenocarcinomas were found to be less likely to have a homogeneous echotexture on ultrasonographic evaluation, with hyperplastic glands being smaller (P = .022) and adenocarcinomas being larger (P = .042). While 3 mm was the optimum cutoff for differentiating hyperplastic and neoplastic parathyroid glands in this sample of dogs, values varied widely within groups and there were overlapping values between groups. Therefore, authors caution against using ultrasonographic size as a sole criterion for differentiating hyperplasia from neoplasia and normal versus abnormal parathyroid glands.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31353771/