CORTISONE INTERFERENCE WITH CALCIUM THERAPY IN HYPOPARATHYROIDISM

Abstract

At present there is not much information to be found in the literature concerning the effect of the adrenal steroid hormone cortisone on calcium metabolism. What has appeared seems somewhat contradictory. We therefore offer the following clinical observations, which tend to show that effective calcium therapy is not possible during cortisone administration. These observations seem to indicate that cortisone and calcium therapy counteract one another. Calcium excretion studies of the urine and feces were not made, but serum calcium and phosphorus studies were undertaken. Hypoparathyroidism is not common, and the striking interference with calcium therapy when cortisone was administered, with distressing symptoms of tetany suffered by the patient, prompts us to report this case. REPORT OF A CASE A 51-year-old white woman was first seen on Nov. 9, 1948, with symptoms of hyperthyroidism due to an adenomatous goiter. This was removed by subtotal thyroidectomy on Dec. 8. The adenoma of