Sarcoidosis masquerading as a parathyroid adenoma.

Two patients presented with a presumptive diagnosis of hyperparathyroidism. Surgically excised "parathyroid glands" were found to be, in fact, large lymph nodes with sarcoid granulomata. In one patient, the preoperative localization of the "parathyroid adenoma" was based on scintigraphy (thallium-technetium subtraction imaging) and sonography procedures. The differential diagnosis of hypercalcemia, and positive scintigraphy-sonography studies, must include sarcoidosis in an isolated cervical lymph nodes.