Clinical Chemistry AACC Online Job Center
HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


     

Clinical Chemistry 30: 511-514, 1984;
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow A correction has been published
Right arrow Submit an electronic Letter to
the Editor about this paper
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when eLetters are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Body, J. J.
Right arrow Articles by Heath, H.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Body, J. J.
Right arrow Articles by Heath, H., 3d

Clinical Chemistry, Vol 30, 511-514, Copyright © 1984 by American Association for Clinical Chemistry

"Nonspecific" increases in plasma immunoreactive calcitonin in healthy individuals: discrimination from medullary thyroid carcinoma by a new extraction technique

JJ Body and H Heath 3d

Occasional seemingly healthy individuals have above-normal concentrations of calcitonin-like immunoreactivity in their plasma, which can lead to mistaken diagnosis of thyroidal or other cancer. We measured immunoreactive calcitonin (CT) before and after extracting the plasma on columns of silica (to improve sensitivity and specificity of the assay for monomeric calcitonin) in five "healthy high-CT" men (I), five patients with known medullary thyroid carcinoma (II), and 30 normal controls (III). Median (and range) values (pg/mL = ng/L) for whole-plasma immunoreactive CT in these groups were, respectively, 379 (157-526), 429 (174-563), and 33 (less than 25-92). Dose-dilution curves for plasma samples from group I did not parallel the standard curve, in contrast to samples from the other two groups. Values for extractable CT from plasma from groups I and III, however, were indistinguishable, but remained significantly increased in group II. Infusions of Ca, 2 mg/kg body wt. in 5 min, produced the expected (normal) increases in extractable CT in group I. The occasional factor (or factors) in plasma of healthy persons that interferes in assays for CT is eliminated by the silica extraction method, and in this way such cases can be distinguished from cases of medullary thyroid carcinoma.


The following articles in journals at HighWire Press have cited this article:


Home page
 Postgrad. Med. J.Home page
E J Lamb, R M Heddle, and A Ellis
Spuriously elevated plasma calcitonin in a patient with a thyroid nodule not associated with medullary thyroid carcinoma
Postgrad. Med. J., May 1, 1999; 75(883): 289 - 291.
[Abstract] [Full Text]

Home page
 J. Clin. Endocrinol. Metab.Home page
P. K. Horvit and R. F. Gagel
The Goitrous Patient with an Elevated Serum Calcitonin--What to Do?
J. Clin. Endocrinol. Metab., February 1, 1997; 82(2): 335 - 337.
[Full Text] [PDF]


HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
Copyright © 1984 by the American Association for Clinical Chemistry.