[jhorner]

Can serum calcium have an impact without hypercalcemia?

by jhorner on Wed Oct 01, 2014 10:13 am

Hello,

I just got my 3 month blood work back and I have yet to see the oncologist regarding my results and sometimes the wait between getting your results online through the patient portal and seeing the doc can be a very long wait indeed. Which is why I wanted to post a question here, again. (I feel like I'm blowing up this forum sometimes!)

My calcium increased from 9.0 mg/dl to 10.0 mg/dl in the last 6 months. Still in normal range, but a significant jump I think considering the normal range varies by only three points?

Anyway my GFR calculated is now low as well. Creatinine has moved up from 0.82 mg/dl to 1.0 mg/dl, still in normal range.

Just curious if the calcium levels could have anything to do with the GFR? My M-protein is 1.3 g/dl, rather small, so I don't see how protein could be impacting the GFR this point.

So my question is, do results absolutely have to be out of range before they cause problems, or are they indicative of potential problems?

Best
J

[Multibilly]

Re: Can serum calcium have an impact without hypercalcemia?

by Multibilly on Wed Oct 01, 2014 3:18 pm

I wouldn't jump to any conclusions quite yet regarding your calcium level. I'd wait till the next round of tests to see where things are at and take it from there. My calcium level oscillates quite a bit (and I'm smoldering):

To give you an idea of how much my calcium level varies, these are my readings over the past two years (taken about every 2 or so months)

9.6
9.9
9.9
10.3
10.5
9.9
8.8
10.2
9.4
10.2
9.4
9.7
9.4

[jhorner]

Re: Can serum calcium have an impact without hypercalcemia?

by jhorner on Thu Oct 02, 2014 9:57 am

Thank you. The flux in your calcium reads is very interesting and enlightening. I had another private response indicating the same thing, that their calcium was up and down all the time. My calcium has been steady at 9.0 for 9 years, with the exception of the last reads, which were 9.5 and 10.0.

I guess because my calcium has always been so stable, I questioned the increase happen­ing at exactly the same time as the low GFR.

Thanks for sharing! I appreciate your support.

Best
J

[terryl1]

Re: Can serum calcium have an impact without hypercalcemia?

by terryl1 on Thu Oct 02, 2014 12:20 pm

You should do a corrected calcium score, as well, as there is a relationship to your albumin, generally the higher the better in terms of good health. There are online calculators for this.

[Multibilly]

Re: Can serum calcium have an impact without hypercalcemia?

by Multibilly on Thu Oct 02, 2014 7:32 pm

Good point Terry.

Jhorner,

Note the caveat about one's albumin level when you use the corrected calcium calculation formula.

"Corrected calcium levels to determine hypercalcemia," Beacon forum discussion started Jul 13, 2014.