Differential Diagnosis of Hypercalcemia

ALTHOUGH hypercalcemia may occur in a wide variety of diseases, differential diagnosis in any given patient, although sometimes difficult, is usually limited to but a few possibilities. Foremost among these is hyperparathyroidism, the most easily curable of the entities listed in Table 1. Until an assay technic for parathyroid hormone becomes readily available and practical for clinical use indirect approaches to diagnosis must be utilized. This review will be concerned with an evaluation of these approaches, but it is quite clear that there can be no substitute for sound clinical judgment, It should be noted incidentally that, although this review is . . .