Vascular calcifications on hand radiographs in rheumatoid arthritis and associations with autoantibodies, cardiovascular risk factors and mortality.

Objective: To examine whether vascular calcifications on hand films in RA might aid in determining mortality risk.

Methods: Hand radiographs from 906 RA patients were scored as positive or negative for vascular calcifications. Patient characteristics associated with vascular calcifications were assessed using multivariable logistic regression, and associations with mortality were examined using Cox proportional hazards regression.

Intraoperative parathyroid hormone testing improves cure rates in patients undergoing minimally invasive parathyroidectomy.

Background: Intraoperative parathyroid hormone (iPTH) testing often is used during minimally invasive parathyroidectomy for primary hyperparathyroidism (1 degrees HPT). However, several investigators report that these assays are not cost effective and do not improve outcomes significantly.

Methods: To determine the impact of iPTH testing on the outcomes of patients with 1 degrees HPT, we reviewed our experience.

Changing trends for surgery in elderly patients with hyperparathyroidism at a single institution.

Background: Many elderly patients with primary hyperparathyroidism (1HPT), which increases in incidence with age and is frequently asymptomatic, are often not referred for surgery. However, the development of minimally invasive techniques has facilitated complex operations even in the elderly. Therefore, we sought to delineate the changes in the trends for surgical referral at our institution for patients over 70 years of age with 1HPT.