January - March 2007, Volume 3, Issue 1

Poiana C, Carsote M, Popescu A, Hortopan D, Stanescu B, Ioachim D

Primary hyperparathyroidism associated with cerebral meningiomas - three cases report

Acta Endo (Buc) 2007, 3 (1): 81-92
doi: 10.4183/aeb.2007.81

Meningiomas are the most common benign tumors of the brain, accounting for about 15 to 20% of all primary brain tumors. They are more common in females than in males and are most likely found in the sixth and seventh decades. Meningiomas arise from leptomeninges. Even the hyperostosis of the overlying skull occurs in 15-20% of cases and most of them have the tendency to calcify. The biological one can find hypercalcemia in a patient with cerebral meningioma, only if it associates other diseases like hyperparathyroidism. Between January 2000 and December 2006, in the Department of Pituitary and Neuroendocrine Pathology of the “C.I.Parhon” Institute of Endocrinology, Bucharest there have been admitted 29 patients with primary hyperparathyroidism, 7 males and 22 females. From the 22 women with primary hyperparathyroidism, 3 cases presented multiple endocrine neoplasia type I and 19 sporadic primary hyperparathyroidism. In the same period of time we found in 3 of these cases the association between sporadic primary hyperparathyroidism and cerebral meningiomas. We present the cases of three female patients of 56, 55, respectively 58 years old, diagnosed with primary hyperparathyroidism during the follow-up for nontoxic goiter. Two of them were known with cerebral meningiomas, unsuccessfully surgically approached, while the third one was newly diagnosed with meningioma, based on neuroimaging. There are a couple of studies regarding the association between cerebral meningiomas and the multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1 (MEN 1), but we found in the literature only three cases of both cerebral meningioma and sporadic primary hyperparathyroidism. Clinicians should be aware of the possible association between cerebral meningiomas and primary hyperparathyroidism.

Keywords: meningioma, primary hyperparathyroidism, hypercalcemia

Correspondence: Catalina Poiana, Endocrinology Department, “Carol Davila” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 34-36 Bd. Aviatorilor, 011863, Bucharest, Romania, Tel/Fax; + 4021 3177430, e-mail: endo.parhon@softnet.ro