What Do Elevated Calcium Levels In The Blood Indicate?

Posted on Fri, 2 Feb 2018

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Fri, 2 Feb 2018 Answered on

Mon, 10 Sep 2018 Last reviewed on

Question : What does elevated calcium in blood mean. Primary Care What conditions would it indicate

Answered by Dr. Panagiotis Zografakis (24 minutes later)

Brief Answer:

Primary hyperparathyroidism is the most likely cause.

Detailed Answer:

Hi,

The most likely cause of high calcium is primary hyperparathyroidism which is a benign tumor of the parathyroids that produces excess PTH.

PTH is a hormone that causes the calcium to rise.

Supplemental calcium and vitamin D is another potential cause of high calcium.

Finally various types of metastatic cancer may present with very high calcium.

There are other less common causes but the ones I've mentioned would cover more than 90% of cases.

Your best next step is to confirm the calcium levels and don't forget to also check the phosphorus, albumin, 25-hydroxy-vitamin D3 and PTH (parathyroid hormone).

Another helpful test would be an ultrasound scan of the parathyroids as it may detect an adenoma.

The rest of the investigation would depend on the results. Obviously if you do have a diagnosed disorder it may help to suggest other potential causes.

Please let me know if you do.

Hope I have answered your query.

Take care

Regards
Dr. Panagiotis Zografakis, Internal Medicine Specialist

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar