Premium
Hypercalcaemia in an Adult Hospital Population: Comparison of Inpatients of 1966 with those of 1976
Author(s) -
Arimott Richard D.,
Melick Roger A.
Publication year - 1979
Publication title -
medical journal of australia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.904
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1326-5377
pISSN - 0025-729X
DOI - 10.5694/j.1326-5377.1979.tb117779.x
Subject(s) - hypercalcaemia , primary hyperparathyroidism , medicine , calcium , hyperparathyroidism , pediatrics , gastroenterology , endocrinology
During 1976, inpatients with hypercalcaemia at The Royal Melbourne Hospital were identified from the worksheets of the Department of Biochemistry and compared with those discovered in a similar study in 1966. In 1966, the estimation of plasma calcium level had to be ordered specifically, whereas in 1976, for technical reasons, the measurement of plasma calcium level was frequently performed when not requested. Despite a six‐fold increase in plasma calcium level estimations in 1976, there was no increase in the rate of detection of hypercalcaemia. In both studies, malignant disease was the most common cause of hypercalcaemia, but primary hyperparathyroidism was found slightly more frequently in 1976. This study suggests that screening inpatients for hypercalcaemia is of little value.