CALCIUM AND PHOSPHORUS STUDIES

Abstract

Although the incidence of parathyroid tetany is rather small, nevertheless its treatment is sometimes attended by certain difficulties, especially when the DISease assumes the chronic Form and the injection of parathyroid extract and the ingestion of large doses of calcium salts become necessary. The observation of MacCallum and Voegtlin¹that parathyroidectomy results in a lowering of the concentration of the serum calcium led to the use of calcium salts as a specific for this and other forms of tetany. Later studies by Greenwald²and others³demonstrated that in Parathyroprivic tetany not only is the calcium in the serum reduced but the inorganic phosphorus is elevated and retained in the organism. The latter observations indicated that the hyperphosphatemia may be as important as the hypocalcemia in the maintenance of hyperirritability, if not more so. That the phosphorus retention may be an important factor in parathyroid tetany is also