Help please with blood results

Hi, 

I've picked up my latest blood results today and would like help to decipher them as GP is ringing me tomorrow: 

calcium 2.49 corrected calcium 2.56 (range 2.2 to 2.6)

Serum creatinine below range 53 again (range 55 to 100) not sure what this means but consistently is below range.

Vitamin D below range at 37 (range 50-144) so considered insufficient.

No PTH tested!!!

I`m confused with these results as when bloods were tested in Jan, vit D was 35 (i think) and calcium was out of range.  I then started taking vit D supplements and when I had a blood test in March I was told to double up the vit d tablets.  I have not got a copy of these results yet as this one was done at the hospital but was told calcium was 2.68 (i think). When I collected my results I expected my calcium to be high as am taking a high dose of vit D.  

Any ideas what me GP will say tomorrow? I thinking she may say I don't have PHPT and I have a vit d problem.  

Thanks 

Mel

Hi Mel,
 
It is good that you are going to have a chat with your GP, they will understand blood tests better than me. I think they will probably want the three things tested Calcium, PTH and vit d.

This is so they can get a better idea what is happening. i would also have your Vit D tablets to hand so you can confirm type of Vit D and strength.

Looking at your test, your Vit D is low. ( this seems to happen to many of us)

When i went to hospital, they had forgotten the calcium, so couldn't comment and i had to have another blood test. I think it takes a good 3 months before a vit d is corrected.

I imagine your GP will order some more bloods- try not to worry. it is good that they want to communicate.

I am still awaiting to hear what my calcium test was, all i know is that i have a high PTH (again) There words.
i am due to see my GP on thursday- always best to discuss with someone i know, than a complete stranger

hope this helps
best wishes

Lozza

Hi Mel

You really need a pth done at the same time to see if it's inappropriately high alongside the calcium result. Calcium levels do go up and down so this could perhaps be one of the normal ones we all seem to get at some point.

Low creatinine isn't usually important although it can be caused by liver disease if it has been low long term but there are other reasons so don't panic about that. Mr Admin will post a good explanation of creatinine on the reference page.

What VitD dose are you on ? and which type ? you would expect it to have risen a little after several months.

I'm sure the others will have some ideas.

Nelly

Info on Creatinine levels

http://www.rixg.org/results/creatinine.html

Hi 

Thanks for your replies and the link very helpful.

I took 400 IU colecalciferol D3 Jan to mid March and then 800 IU mid March to date.  I asked if I could take a higher dose at one of my GP appointments, as I take a steroids for ulcerative colitis and this can change bone density.  My GP said people with osteoporosis take 800 IU so it was as high as I should take.  

Thanks again

Mel

According to she who must be obeyed, I should have posted this link:

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/low-creatinine-levels.html

Edwin
(using Mrs Admin's account again - keep forgetting to check before posting - Thyroid brain fog)

Yes, Nelly is right, Mel. You must have PTH and calcium drawn at the same time to determine whether or not there is a parathyroid problem. One without the other doesn't prove much of anything, as it is normal for them both to fluctuate. When calcium goes up, PTH should come down and vice versa. That is normal.

You're not really taking that large a dose of vitamin D. When my vitamin D was found to be in the 20s and 30s before my surgery, I was prescribed 50,000 IU twice weekly. Even taking that much, my calcium level didn't really increase. As I look back at my old labs, I see that when my vitamin D was 25, my calcium was 10.1, and when when I started taking vitamin D, raising my vitamin D level to 99, my calcium was 10.1! Hmmm.......... I said before that my body never does what it is supposed to; I guess this is just 1 more example. It looks like my calcium just slowly rose over time, regardless of my vitamin D level. After stopping the vitamin D altogether, my calcium rose to 10.6 and 10.7. What a strange body I have!

My creatinine was always normal, so I'm no help with that. Sorry.

Audrey

Audrey is right, 800iu of VitD is a low dose so it would take many many months to have an effect, if at all. Rather than raising your calcium level it is probably just keeping it from going lower. 

You do need to ask for another set of bloods to include pth this time.

Take care

Nelly

In my (non-medical) view, I think you are OK with 800 iu, Mel. I take 2000 iu daily and my husband takes 4000 iu daily, because he read about a doctors' conference in Canada where all the docs there were taking 4,000 iu daily themselves!

If you look at the Vitamin D pages on www.parathyroid.com you will see that Dr Jim Norman regards a low Vitamin D as an innocent bystander at the HPT car crash, if you like: present at the scene but not responsible for causing the accident!

He says that Vitamin D is often low in people with HPT because when serum calcium is high (and yours is high in the range) the body tries to reduce the amount of Vitamin D available to prevent it from doing its usual job of extracting more calcium from food taken in, because the level of calcium in the blood is high enough already.

I agree with lozza that you will get a better overview if you can ask your GP to test Calcium (it will appear on your blood test form as part of the Bone Profile) and to add Vitamin D and Parathyroid Hormone to the request form. If they don't actually put PTH on it, it won't get tested, and it is regarded as an expensive test, so they are probably quite happy to "miss it off". You will need to insist that they put it on the request form and check before you leave their office that it is there. And if they say they can't find a button to press to put it on the form, ask them to write it on by hand, and write it out in full: Parathyroid Hormone. Phew!! What we have to go through!

Hope that's helpful, Mel. Do let us know how you get on.

Love Tigerlily xx