Correlations of serum concentrations of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D, phosphorus, and parathyroid hormone in tumoral calcinosis.

The inherited metabolic disorder tumoral calcinosis is characterized by elevated serum phosphorus and 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D [1,25-(OH)2D] levels and paraarticular calcific tumors. The pathogenesis of this disease is obscure, but an elevated renal phosphate reabsorption threshold and increased production of 1,25-(OH)2D are postulated as defects. We studied nine affected patients and found that both serum phosphorus and renal phosphate reabsorption threshold (TmP/GFR) were positively correlated with serum 1,25-(OH)2D levels. Since tumoral calcinosis is a disorder with abnormal renal phosphate transport, we compared the TmP/GFR and serum 1,25-(OH)2D levels to values obtained in patients with two other diseases with renal phosphate transport defects: oncogenic osteomalacia and X-linked hypophosphatemic rickets. We found a significant correlation between TmP/GFR and 1,25-(OH)2D levels in all three diseases, suggesting that in these diseases 1,25-(OH)2D production is regulated in some manner by phosphate transport. Furthermore, previous work indicated that in tumoral calcinosis broad variation exists in serum phosphorus levels. In our patients a negative correlation was found between the serum PTH concentrations and both serum phosphorus levels and TmP/GFR values, respectively. We postulate that although the basic defect in tumoral calcinosis most likely resides in the proximal renal tubular cell, the variation in serum phosphorus levels and possibly disease expression is modulated in part by PTH.