UK national chronic hypoparathyroidism audit

Abstract

Objectives Individuals with chronic hypoparathyroidism may experience suboptimal medical care with high frequency of unplanned hospitalisation and iatrogenic harm. In 2015 the European Society for Endocrinology published consensus guidelines on the management of chronic hypoparathyroidism. We set out to audit compliance with these guidelines. Methods Using these recommendations as audit standards we worked with the Society for Endocrinology and Parathyroid UK to conduct a national audit of management of chronic hypoparathyroidism in the United Kingdom. Endocrine leads in 117 endocrine departments were invited to participate in the survey by completing a data collection tool on up to 5 sequential cases of chronic hypoparathyroidism seen in their outpatient clinics in the preceding 12 months. Data were collected on 4 treatment standards and 9 monitoring standards. Data on hospitalisations and Quality of Life monitoring were also collected. Results Responses were received from 22 departments giving a response rate of 19%, concerning 80 individual cases. The mean age of subjects was 48.4 years. The main findings were that the commonest cause of hypoparathyroidism was post surgical (66.3%). Treatments taken by the group included activated vitamin D analogues (96.3%), oral calcium salts (66.3%), vitamin D supplements (17.5%), thiazide diuretics (5%) and rhPTH1–34 (1.3%). Compliance with the audit standards varied between 98.8% and 60% for the treatment standards and between 91.3% and 20% for the monitoring standards. Some of the areas of weakness revealed include low rates of 24 h urinary calcium excretion monitoring, serum magnesium monitoring and low rates of renal imaging where indicated. In addition and importantly, 16.3% of subjects had experienced at least one hospital admission in the preceding 12 months. Conclusion We conclude that further improvements in the UK national standard of management of chronic hypoparathyroidism should be made and that this will benefit both quality of life, morbidity and potentially mortality in this group of patients.

Biochemical Control of 78 Patients with Chronic Hypoparathyroidism Referred between 2006 and 2020 – Where do We Actually Stand?

“…In this particular study one third of the patients were taking oral calcium and calcitriol less than the recommended dose [18]. A UK national chronic hypoPT audit identifi ed 80 individual patients' cases and reported compliance with treatment standards between 98.8% and 60%, whereas the compliance with monitoring standards fell even lower -91.3-20% [28]. In a German survey on management of hypoPT by family physicians only 75.8% of the patients had data on serum calcium and one third of them still showed hypocalcemia [29].…”