Muhammad Dilawar, Ibrar A Javaid, Baqa Jeelani.
Serum calcium & electrolytes levels in healthy subjects & patients of various malignancies.
Pak J Pathol Jan ;13(4):7-10.

Serum calcium and electrolytes are quite useful biochemical parameters which can help to find out day to day metabolic changes in cancer patients. The values of such analytes in healthy population and patients of various malignancies of Dept of Oncology, Nishtar Hospital Multan were determined at Combined Military Hospital Multan. A total number of 375 subjects comprising 165 healthy adult males aged 16 - 55 y, 120 healthy adult females aged 21 - 50 y, 55 male patients aged 25 - 60 y and 45 females patients aged 18 - 42 y were included in study. Serum calcium (Ca), phosphates (P04), magnesium (Mg) and chlorides (CI) were measured by using reagent kits of Croma on chemistry analyzer, RA - 50 (Ames-USA). Serum sodium (Na) and Potassium (K) were measured by using calibrators of Corning on flame photometer (Corning-UK). The reference values were calculated using 2.5 and 97.5 percentiles as lower and upper limits (95% confidence interval). In healthy adult males values of Ca were 1.95 - 2.54 mmolll, P04 were 0.95 - 1.57 mmolll, Mg were 0.5 - 1.48 mmolll, Cl were 95 - 111 mmolll, Na were 133 - 151 mmolll and K were 3.9 - 5.2 mmolll. The values show little differences in healthy adult females. In patients of various malignancies the values of Ca were significantly high, P04 were slightly low, Cl and Na were in the normal ranges, values of K were moderately higher than the reference values of the present study. It is recommended that reference values of common biochemical parameters be established in various parts of Pakistan by concerned laboratories to make appropriate use of such investigations especially for acutely ill patients and cases suffering from various malignancies.

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