Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to M Bridgeman.
The elderly population in the Chicago area benefits from an unusual home care aide program--one in which the aides also benefit: aides are drawn from the population receiving public assistance and given training that offers them a career ladder and opportunity they might otherwise not have had, all while helping others.
We studied 5 patients with immobilisation hypercalcemia. Plasma calcium was 3.28 +/- (SD) 0.26 mmol/l. Plasma parathyroid hormone (PTH) level was elevated in 3 patients and inappropriately detectable in 1. Nephrogenous cAMP, measured in 3 patients, was low-normal in 1 who had a normal PTH and zero in 2 who had elevated PTH. Quantitative bone histology was performed in 3 patients. 1 had evidence of increased resorption (osteoclast count 7.1/mm2 section area, normal 1.0 +/- 0.5) and had a high-normal bone formation rate. Another had a normal osteoclast count but no evidence of bone formation. The third had normal bone histology. We conclude that (a) the PTH appears to be biologically inactive and its elevation may be due, in some patients, to renal retention of carboxyterminal fragments; (b) the histologic pattern in bone is variable and not predictable from the duration of illness; (c) the mechanism by which immobilisation induces these changes is obscure, and (d) careful clinical assessment may be necessary to avoid misdiagnosing the condition as primary hyperparathyroidism.
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