Hyperparathyroidism and Peptic Ulcer Disease

THE FIRST hyperfunctioning parathyroid carcinoma with metastases was reported in 1939 by Meyer.1The association of peptic ulcer and hyperparathyroidism was emphasized by Rogers2in 1946 and by Rogers et al in 1947.3In 1950, Haynes reviewed all cases of hyperparathyroidism seen at the Mayo Clinic and found that 24% of the patients with proved hyperparathyroidism had at the time of examination, or in the past, objective evidence of peptic ulcer or surgical procedures presumably for ulcers. The majority of the ulcers were duodenal. An additional 15% to 20% of the patients had ulcerlike symptoms.4 The first question that must be investigated in a discussion of the relationship between hyperparathyroidism and peptic ulcer is whether the concurrent incidence of these two diseases is higher than the corresponding incidence of peptic ulcer in the general population. Unfortunately, this is not feasible since investigations to determine the incidence