Primary hyperparathyroidism and hyperuricaemia are associated but not correlated with indicators of bone turnover.

Urate metabolism was studied in 53 patients with primary hyperparathyroidism. They had compared to controls significantly higher serum urate and reduction of the clearance of urate. In 14 of the tested patients with primary hyperparathyroidism serum urate was increased above normal limits. Six months after parathyroidectomy serum urate fell significantly from 365.3 +/- 75.7 mumol/l to 265.7 +/- 48.3 mumol/l, in 26 patients where urate measurements were available before as well as after surgery. Serum urate levels in our patients with primary hyperparathyroidism did not correlate with clearance of urate. Levels of serum urate cannot be entirely explained by the decrease in renal clearance of urate. Serum urate levels did not correlate with severity of skeletal changes expressed by serum B-ALP and urinary excretion of hydroxyproline. These results suggest that parathormone does not increase the part of the urate pool coming from the nucleic acids of the increased bone metabolism.