The view of the clinical picture of primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) has essentially changed during the recent years under the influence of new data about its prevalence and the structure of the disease. The analysis of the database created at the Endocrinological Research Centre and including 1053 patients was used to obtain an epidemiological characteristics of various forms of PHPT recorded in Russia. PHPT morbidity in Moscow was estimated, based on the incidence of outpatient visits, to reach 0.05 per 1,000 adult population. This figure is significantly lower than that reported in foreign publications. The manifest form appears to be the most widespread form of PHTP in this country. The relative prevalence of the mild form has increased in the last years (till 2012) but does not exceed 28% or significantly lower than abroad where it is reported to prevail in the structure of PHPT morbidity. The asymptotic form accounts for 7.5% of all PHPT cases in the framework of type 1 multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome (MEN-1) where it most frequently occurs in combination with pituitary adenomas (81%), in the first place prolactinomas, somatotropinomas, and pancreatic tumours (45%).

The view of the clinical picture of primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) has essentially changed during the recent years under the influence of new data about its prevalence and the structure of the disease. The analysis of the database created at the Endocrinological Research Centre and including 1053 patients was used to obtain an epidemiological characteristics of various forms of PHPT recorded in Russia. PHPT morbidity in Moscow was estimated, based on the incidence of outpatient visits, to reach 0.05 per 1,000 adult population. This figure is significantly lower than that reported in foreign publications. The manifest form appears to be the most widespread form of PHTP in this country. The relative prevalence of the mild form has increased in the last years (till 2012) but does not exceed 28% or significantly lower than abroad where it is reported to prevail in the structure of PHPT morbidity. The asymptotic form accounts for 7.5% of all PHPT cases in the framework of type 1 multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome (MEN-1) where it most frequently occurs in combination with pituitary adenomas (81%), in the first place prolactinomas, somatotropinomas, and pancreatic tumours (45%).

To elucidate specific features of epidemiology of various forms of primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) in this country using the information about 561 patients accumulated for 19 years in the database of Federal state institution «Endocrinological Research Centre». The incidence of PHPT in Moscow estimated from the database of Endocrinological Research Centre for 2007 was 6.8 per 1 000 000 adult population and the prevalence as per 2009 was 3.1/100 000. These values are significantly lower than those reported by foreign authors. The men to women ratio among the patients with PHPT was 1:8. The disease largely affects subjects at the age from 50 to 60 years. By the year of 2004, the frequency of the mild form of PHPT did not exceed 20% of the total (based on 2002 Consensus criteria). It increased to 37% during the past 5 years. Conservative treatment of PHPT can be recommended to 14% of the patients presenting with sporadic disease and to 32% of those with MEN syndrome. The frequency of asymptotic PHPT and its normocalcemic forms is estimated at 5% and 9% respectively. The above results are the first data on epidemiology of PHPT in this country; however, they are insufficient to comprehensively evaluate the real significance of the problem. Large-scale epidemiological studies are needed to ensure adequate assessment of the situation.

Up to the mid-1970s, primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) was considered to be a rare pathology. The introduction of methods for the measurement of blood calcium levels into the clinical practice substantially extended knowledge about diverse forms of PHPT and its prevalence. The present review presents results of those sparse epidemiological investigations of PHPT that were carried out in different countries.