An adenylate cyclase bioassay for parathyroid hormone: some clinical experiences.

An adenylate cyclase bioassay for parathyroid hormone (PTH) was evaluated in peripheral sera of ten normal subjects, 15 patients with various types of hypoparathyroidism, nine patients with malignancy-associated hypercalcaemia and 60 patients with primary or secondary hyperparathyroidism. The lower limit of detectability was 150 pg/ml in terms of synthetic human PTH (1-34). PTH-like bioactivity was not detected in normal subjects, in patients with surgical hypoparathyroidism, in patients with idiopathic hypoparathyroidism or in patients with malignancy-associated hypercalcaemia. Serum from one untreated pseudohypoparathyroid patient consistently contained PTH-like bioactivity. Bioactivity was detected in sera from 50% of patients with primary or secondary hyperparathyroidism. In two patients with secondary hyperparathyroidism calcium infusions suppressed this activity within 5 min. Both in primary and in secondary hyperparathyroidism there was a significant positive correlation between levels of PTH-like bioactivity, PTH immunoreactivity and the histological severity of the disease.