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To the Editor: In his comprehensive review of the management of acute hypercalcemia, Bilezikian (April 30 issue)1 stated that etidronate therapy lowered serum calcium concentrations to normal in 60 to 100 percent of patients. Later, in describing our study comparing gallium nitrate with etidronate,2 he noted that the rate of response (43 percent) in the etidronate-treated patients was “unusually low.” This study was larger than the other studies cited, and the dose of etidronate used was two-thirds more than the maximum recommended in the United States. In another study in which etidronate was compared with pamidronate,3 the rate of response... © 1992, Massachusetts Medical Society. All rights reserved. |
