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Clinical Chemistry 37: 1216-1220, 1991;
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Clinical Chemistry, Vol 37, 1216-1220, Copyright © 1991 by American Association for Clinical Chemistry

Assessing acute parathyroid responsiveness in hemodialysis patients by measuring intact parathyrin in pre- and post-dialysis serum

BA Dilena and GH White
Department of Biochemistry and Chemical Pathology, Flinders Medical Centre, Bedford Park, S.A., Australia.

We measured pre- and post-dialysis concentrations of ionized calcium (iCa) in whole blood, total calcium (tCa) in plasma, and intact parathyrin (PTH) in serum of 19 patients undergoing maintenance hemodialysis. Plasma tCa was inappropriately increased relative to iCa in 63% of the specimens; the iCa correlated with the PTH concentration in 12 of 19 pre-dialysis specimens, whereas tCa correlated with PTH in only five patients. During dialysis, 16 patients had analytically significant changes in iCa (i.e., exceeded the analytical imprecision of 0.04 mmol/L). Pre- and post-dialysis concentrations of PTH were normal in six patients, four of whom showed a detectable response to changes in iCa. Ten patients had increased PTH in at least one specimen; of these, eight had responsive parathyroid glands. Five of the 16 patients had an increased set point for calcium. The minimal PTH responses of two patients suggested refractory hyperparathyroidism. We conclude that routine estimation of iCa, rather than tCa, in dialysis patients markedly improves the identification of patients at risk for secondary hyperparathyroidism, and that measurement of intact PTH in pre- and post-dialysis serum offers a simple means of assessing parathyroid responsiveness in dialysis patients.




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Copyright © 1991 by the American Association for Clinical Chemistry.