Hypocalcaemia: Differential Diagnosis and Investigation

Abstract

Hypocalcaemia accounts for many of the telephone inquiries made to the Department of Biochemical Medicine in Dundee. About half of these cases can be explained by hypoalbuminaemia; the causes of “true” hypocalcaemia are given in Table 1.

Chronic renal failure is probably the most frequent cause of hypocalcaemia in Britain. In the world as a whole it is likely that vitamin D deficiency, causing rickets in children and osteomalacia in adults, is the commonest cause of hypocalcaemia.