A 32 year old woman with anorexia nervosa was admitted to hospital with severe hypocalcaemia and hypokalaemia that was refractory to replacement treatment but that responded immediately to an infusion of magnesium. She also had congestive cardiac failure that responded to magnesium replacement. The mild hypomagnesaemia found in this patient was responsible for the refractory hypocalcaemia. Mino...

Fairney, A., Jackson, D., and Clayton, B. E. (1973). Archives of Disease in Childhood, 48, 419. Measurement of serum parathyroid hormone, with particular reference to some infants with hypocalcaemia. Parathyroid hormone (PTH) in serum has been determined by a double antibody radioimmunoassay which is suitable for use in infants. The concentration in normal infants rose after birth from a mean l...

Hypocalcaemia often occurs in patients after parathyroidectomy (PTX) due to hypoparathyroidism and/or hungry bone syndrome. To avoid hypocalcaemia, patients are substituted with large doses of calcium and vitamin D. Here, we present four patients, who developed acute renal failure with hypercalcaemia and/or histologically confirmed nephrocalcinosis after PTX due to oversubstitution with vitamin...

In this issue, de Beus and Boer [4] report the case of a patient with chronic renal failure and immobilizationrelated hypercalcaemia successfully treated with denosumab after a partial and transient response to pamidronate. The case suggests that denosumab might be a promising alternative to bisphosphonates also for the treatment of resorption-related hypercalcaemia in patients with renal insuf...

An increase in serum levels of the parathyroid hormone (PTH) and hyperplasia of the parathyroid glands have been observed to occur in the early stages of chronic kidney disease with decreased renal function, in an attempt to maintain serum calcium within the normal range [1]. However, this secondary hyperparathyroidism becomes maladaptive when chronic renal failure progresses to end-stage renal...

Our understanding of disorders that present with hypocalcaemia has advanced rapidly in the past decade. The molecular basis of many of these disorders and conditions associated with phosphate wasting has now been established. While many children will need specialist involvement, they often will present to general paediatricians, and appropriate investigations prior to intervention will enable e...

Symptomatic hypocalcaemia is an uncommon finding in patients with malignant tumours. We describe a patient with advanced metastatic breast cancer who developed severe hypocalcaemia caused by the combination of osteoblastic metastases and a permanent postoperative hypoparathyroidism. The patient failed to be treated with the conventional replacement therapy and was submitted effectively to radio...