Skeletal blood flow in Paget's disease of bone and its response to calcitonin therapy.

1. Blood flow to the skeleton was measured by the 18F clearance method of Wooton, Reeve & Veall (1976) in 24 patients with untreated Paget's disease. In every patient but one, resting skeletal blood flow was increased. There was a significant positive correlation between skeletal blood flow and serum alkaline phosphatase and between skeletal blood flow and urinary total hydroxyproline excretion. 2. Fourteen patients were re-studied after they had received short-term (7 days or less) or long-term (7 weeks or more) calcitonin. Skeletal blood flow, alkaline phosphatase and urinary hydroxy-proline excretion fell towards normal in every case. There was some evidence from the short-term studies that calcitonin produced a more rapid fall in skeletal blood flow than in alkaline phosphatase. 3. Glomerular filtration rate appeared to increase transiently in response to calcitonin.