Preoperative diagnosis of suspicious parathyroid adenomas by RT-PCR using mRNA extracted from leftover cells in a needle used for ultrasonically guided fine needle aspiration cytology.

Objective: To determine the usefulness of reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) detection of parathormone (PTH) gene mRNA in needle aspirates to confirm the parathyroid nature of suspicious cervical lesions in patients with hyperparathyroidism.

Study Design: Ultrasound-guided fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) was performed on 12 patients with suspected parathyroid adenomas. The aspirates were subjected to cytologic and chromogranin A examination.