Does propofol anesthesia affect intraoperative parathyroid hormone levels? A randomized, prospective trial

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial paper looks at Parathyroid Hormone (PTH 1-84).

Intravenous propofol (2,6-diisopropylphenol) infusion is used commonly for sedation/anesthesia during operations.

Several authors have reported that propofol can interfere with intact parathyroid hormone (PTH) testing in vitro.

Who Took Part

The abstract describes 34 patients taking part.

The age groups tagged for this paper are middle-aged adults, both men and women.

Patients were assigned randomly to local anesthesia with either propofol (n = 17 patients) or midazolam (n = 17 patients) sedation.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized study.

Random assignment meant chance, not the researchers, decided who got Parathyroid Hormone (PTH 1-84) and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

PTH values were obtained before the procedure and at 10 minutes and 30 minutes after the start of the propofol or midazolam.

What Was Measured

Several authors have reported that propofol can interfere with intact parathyroid hormone (PTH) testing in vitro.

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Anesthetics, Intravenous, Arteriovenous Shunt, Surgical, Calcium, Hyperparathyroidism, Secondary, Monitoring, Intraoperative, Parathyroid Hormone and Propofol.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized study of Parathyroid Hormone (PTH 1-84) in 34 patients.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 6 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2004 (Surgery), a journal based in United States.

More context: the Parathyroid Hormone (PTH 1-84) compound page, all human trials.