Influence of posture on free calcium and related variables.

We measured free calcium and related variables before and after the subject changed from the upright to the supine posture, doing 15 separate such experiments on 11 healthy men. After such a change, free calcium (1.7 +/- 0.4%), total calcium (4.6 +/- 0.7%), total protein (11.5 +/- 1.4%), albumin (12.2 +/- 2.0%), total magnesium (3.8 +/- 0.9%), and the activity of hydrogen ion (2.9 +/- 1.0%) decreased significantly (values are means +/- SEM), but promptly reverted when three subjects assumed the alternative posture. Changes in lactate values were not rapidly reversible; sodium and potassium showed no significant change. The mechanism of the changes in free calcium is unclear, but they correlated only with the changes in total calcium and were notably less than the changes in total calcium, indicating that posture will have less effect on the interpretation of free calcium values than on values for total calcium.