Urinary excretion of cyclic AMP in hyperparathyroidism.

The urinary excretion of adenosine 3', 5'-monophosphate (cAMP) was investigated in 15 subjects with primary hyperparathyroidism prior to parathyroidectomy and in 13 of them also after the operation. In comparison with healthy control subjects the cAMP excretion was raised in 8 of the patients pre-operatively and after operation all values had become normal. The discriminatory value of the cAMP analyses seemed to be increased by relating the cAMP values to the urinary excretion of calcium. With the applied methods determination of urinary cAMP was superior to a radioimmunoassay of parathyroid hormone in recognizing patients with primary hyperparathyroidism. In normal subjects it appeared that the cAMP excretion expressed per gram creatinine was somewhat higher in women than in men.