Parathyroid Hormone Help

[koako]

HI everyone, so lately my PTH has been above normal, it is around 700. I feel worried that it is so high, but the doctor and the dietician tell me there is nothing I can do. In fact. the neph came by the other day and looked at my labs and said everything looked good! so i'm just wondering, am I just being paranoid here?

[obsidianom]

HI everyone, so lately my PTH has been above normal, it is around 700. I feel worried that it is so high, but the doctor and the dietician tell me there is nothing I can do. In fact. the neph came by the other day and looked at my labs and said everything looked good! so i'm just wondering, am I just being paranoid here?

Unfortunatly secondary hyperparathyroidism is very common , almost 100% in dialysis patients. How is your calcium and phosphorus? That is more important. As long as they are ok, then there is nothing you can really do. There are medications if the calcium is low and phosphorus high.

[dialysisuser82]

Our center is using Zemplar (Paricalcitol) with great success on patients.  see http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMHT0011600/?report=details

Your neph needs to prescribe it. 

My neph would panic and pass out at your level.

[koako]

Hey everyone, I was just wondering are there are side effects that come with having a high PTH? cause so far, i feel fine, but it would be nice to know what could happen to me.

[cdwbrooklyn]

Hey everyone, I was just wondering are there are side effects that come with having a high PTH? cause so far, i feel fine, but it would be nice to know what could happen to me.

As far as I was told, when your PTH is high, you can fracture your bones easily.  Bones become very weak so if you hit your arm, leg, hand, or hip on something very hard, it can break and will not heal back the same.   However, 700 is a little above high and its probably not that bad in your doctor’s eyes.  Anyhoo, if you want you can ask your doctor to prescribe some meds to help bring in down a notch.
 

[Cowdog]

Monitor your calcium levels. High PTH can cause the body to scavenge calcium from your bones weakening them as CDW described. Mine was up to 1300 PTH with >12 calcium. PTH was nonresponsive to Sensipar. I decided to go the parathyroid glands removal route. Glad I did, one less med or issue to think about.
Interesting events post surgery, glands removed so PTH plummeted, bones realized they were grossly low on calcium and started pulling everything they could. Calcium dropped to <8 in hours. Took about a month of supplemental calcium for levels to normalize.