In addition to the well-documented hyporesponsiveness of the kidney, resistance to parathyroid hormone (PTH) has been postulated for bone in pseudohypoparathyroidism type I (PHP). In some of these patients reduced bone density and even frank osteitis fibrosa suggest osteoclastic overactivity. To address the possibility that the skeletal system of patients with PHP may be affected by their increased PTH secretion we measured intact serum PTH and three biochemical markers of bone turnover in a large number of patients with PHP (n = 20). The results were compared with subjects with low (hypoparathyroidism, HP n = 29), normal (controls, n = 31) and high (primary hyperparathyroidism, 1 degree HPT, n = 13) PTH secretion. Both markers of osteoblastic bone formation, alkaline phosphatase activity and osteocalcin concentration in serum, and one index of osteoclastic bone degradation, the urinary hydroxyproline/creatinine ratio (OH-P/Cr), were decreased in HP and increased in 1 degree HPT, whereas only OH-P/Cr was elevated in patients with PHP. Although intact serum PTH was significantly more increased in PHP than in 1 degree HPT, the markers of bone turnover were not significantly different in these two groups, suggesting some bone resistance in the patients with PHP. In these subjects intact serum PTH was elevated even at normocalcaemia during vitamin D treatment with a negative correlation with the respective serum calcium concentration (r = -0.69, P less than 0.001), indicating an elevated set-point for the suppression of their parathyroid glands. OH-P/Cr was negatively related to serum calcium in PHP, it normalized in most patients during normocalcaemia induced by vitamin D treatment.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

No abstract

Intact parathormone (PTH 1-84) was measured with a new immunoradiometric method in serum from 83 children and adults with various abnormalities of calcium metabolism. The results were compared with those of an assay of midregional PTH fraction (44-68). Both measurements discriminated well between normal controls and patients with primary or secondary hyperparathyroidism. In patients in chronic renal failure intact PTH measurement was best for demonstrating parathyroid secretion. An important advantage of the new method is in the diagnosis of PTH hyposecretion in hypoparathyroidism and of tumour hypercalcaemia, which is not possible by mid-regional PTH determination. Intravenous injection of calcium (2 mg/kg over 5 min) and of synthetic PTH fragment (6 U/kg 1-38 hPTH over 2 min) caused a reduction in intact serum-PTH to about half the initial value after five minutes. Measuring intact PTH is thus a suitable method for determining both raised and decreased parathyroid secretion in disease and in the course of function tests. It is simple to perform, subject to only minor interference, and thus suitable also as a routine laboratory test.

No abstract