Paget's disease of bone.

The essential requirement for effective treatment of Paget’s disease of bone is that the characteristic abnormality of bone remodelling is predictably corrected without the occurrence of significant side effects. Although the ideal agent is not currently available, appropriate use of the calcitonins or diphosphonates goes a long way to achieving this goal. Calcitonin (50 to 100 MRC units subcutaneously daily or 3 times weekly) will generally reduce bone turnover by approximately 50% within 6 months. However, very active disease will not be controlled and bone turnover will generally increase once treatment is withdrawn. Calcitonin is without significant side effects, although some patients will develop antibody-mediated resistance to the exogenous calcitonin species. An advantage of calcitonin is that there is radiographic evidence of a return to normal bone remodelling during treatment.