Hypercalcemia in the elderly

Hypercalcemia may be a manifestation of certain serious diseases and malignancies, and may also be found by accident in laboratory tests in patients without obvious signs of disease. Before analyzing hypercalcemia, make sure that there is indeed hypercalcemia, not false positive results found in laboratory tests. The existence of hypercalcemia is only confirmed when the corrected serum calcium concentration exceeds 10.8 mg / dl (2.7 mmol / L) or the ionized calcium exceeds 5.4 mg / dl (1.35 mmol / L). Because hypercalcemia is persistent or intermittent, it is always long-term, so it can be diagnosed by measuring fasting calcium several times. Once the hypercalcemia is confirmed, the cause must be diagnosed.