Journal - Clinical nephrology (Germany )

Abstract :

AIMS: Elevated calcitonin concentrations in dialysis patients had led to thyroidectomy for a benign C-cell hyperplasia in dozens of patients in the past decade. The prevalence of hypercalcitoninemia, however, has not been examined in a large cohort of dialysis patients. METHODS: We, therefore, measured calcitonin concentrations in 283 dialysis patients. We used different reference intervals: according to the threshold to perform further stimulation tests (i.e. > 10 pg/ml) and new reference intervals for the currently used assay (i.e. serum calcitonin concentration < 11.5 pg/ml in men and < 4.6 pg/ml in women). RESULTS: Median calcitonin concentrations of men and women were 12 (1; 290) pg/ml vs 2 pg/ml (1; 45), respectively, (p < 0.0001). The prevalence of hypercalcitoninemia was 10% in women and 58% in men using a cut-off of 10 pg/ml. Applying the new reference intervals 31% of women and 54% of men presented with hypercalcitoninemia. All patients with basal calcitonin concentrations above 50 pg/ml were men (highest calcitonin concentration was 290 pg/ml). Two of them underwent thyroidectomy and had C-cell hyperplasia. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of hypercalcitoninemia in dialysis patients amounts to 46%. It is more common in male than in female dialysis patients.