Experience with the Hamilton and Highman Test for Parathyroid Hyperfunction in Chronic Nephritis, Toxic Goiter, and Paget's Disease of Bone.

In 1932 Hamilton and Schwartz (1) described a method for the detection of small amounts of parathyroid hormone, three to five units, in preparations of the hormone and in blood. In 1936 Hamilton and Highman (2) presented certain modifications of this test designed to make the method particularly applicable to the detection of abnormally large amounts of parathyroid hormone in the blood of patients suspected of having increased parathyroid function. The test consists, briefly, in measuring the increase in the serum calcium of a rabbit at definite intervals after the rabbit has received an intramuscular injection of the blood or preparation containing parathyroid hormone, the animal being given amounts of calcium chloride solution by stomach tube at definite periods during the experiment. In this communication we present our results obtained with the Hamilton and Highman test, and related blood chemical studies, in patients with chronic nephritis. The parathyroid glands of some of the patients were examined postmortem. Results obtained in toxic goiter and Paget's disease of bone are also briefly presented and discussed.