Idiopathic hypoparathyroidism and autoimmunity.

Only a small number of cases of idiopathic hypoparathyroidism linked to the presence of specific antibodies have been described until now. Serum antiparathyroid antibodies have been frequently discovered in the absence of overt parathyroid disease. This suggests either that this kind of antibody is only a marker of genetic predisposition to immunological disease or more probably that subclinical hypoparathyroidism does exist though we lack the sensitive laboratory tests to prove it.