Study Selection

Articles were initially screened independently by title and abstract by two authors (Julius Simoni Leere and Peter Vestergaard). Lists with the articles each of the authors had found eligible were compared and discussed. In case of disagreement between the authors, the full-text article was acquired for evaluation. The obtained full-text articles were excluded if they did not include medical treatment of primary hyperparathyroidism as a main subject, or did not include one or more of the drugs of interest (i.e., drugs used in the search strategy). Studies that lacked data or consistency in reporting on efficacy of the drugs, or did not fulfill the given criteria for eligibility mentioned previously in the search strategy were excluded. Change in s-total calcium (albumin adjusted) was a primary endpoint and necessary in statistical analysis. Studies that failed to report figures of either baseline or treatment levels of s-total calcium were excluded from the meta-calculations, but included in the tables for evaluation in the systematic review.