Calcium metabolism is regulated by three specific hormones: parathor- mone, calciferol metabolites, and calcitonin. Cyclic AMP also plays an important part in calcium regulation, and its concentration in urine can be taken as a measure of parathyroid function. Methods for quantitative measurement of, e.g. calcium-regulating hormones and vitamin D metabolites as well as of cAMP are absolutely necessary for safe differential diagnosis of diseases of the parathyroid like hypo- and hyperparathyroidism. In this monograph all presently available methods are summarized as to whether they can already be obtained as test kits or are still being tested. Radioimmunoassays for the various peptide fragments such as 53-84, 44-68, 28-48, and 1-34 are described, as are immunochemiluminescence methods and adenylate cyclase bioassays. The same is true for the vitamin D metabolites, where the various assays for calcidiol and calcitriol such as HPLC, protein-binding assay with second antibody separation, and double antibody RIA are de
scribed. Finally, determination of calcitonin and cAMP is discussed in detail. This is a practically and clinically oriented monograph for working in the fields of internal medicine, endocrinology, and laboratory medicine.

1 Introduction

1.1 Clinical Application of Intact Parathyroid Hormone Determination
1.2 Clinical Use of Vitamin D Metabolite Assays (Calcidiol and Calcitriol)
1.3 Diagnostic Value of the Peptides from the Calcitonin Gene
1.4 Immunoassay Vial for Improved Assay Performance
2 Parathyroid Hormone Assays and Clinical Application
2.1 Homologous Radioimmunoassay for Human Parathyroid Hormone (Residues 53-84) with Tyrosylated Peptide as Tracer
2.2 Sensitive Homologous Radioimmunoassay for Human Parathyroid Hormone (Residues 53-84) to Diagnose Hypoparathyroid Conditions: Guidelines for the Establishment of Highly Sensitive Assays
2.3 Rapid Homologous Radioimmunoassay for Human Parathyroid Hormone (Residues 53-84) as a Diagnostic Aid in Hypercalcemic Crisis
2.4 Homologous Radioimmunoassay for Human Parathyroid Hormone (Residues 44-68) with Tyrosylated Peptide as Tracer
2.5 Purification of 125Iodine-Labeled Tyrosylated Human Parathyroid Hormone Fragment (Residues 44-68), Optimized by Reverse-Phase High-Performance Liquid Chromatography
2.6 Homologous Radioimmunoassay for Human Parathyroid Hormone (Residues 28-48) with Tyrosylated Peptide as Tracer
2.7 Homologous Radioimmunoassay for Human Parathyroid Hormone (Residues 1-34) with Biotinylated Peptide as Tracer
2.8 Measurement of Intact Parathyroid Hormone by an Extracting Two-Site Immunoradiometric Assay
2.9 Measurement of Intact Parathyroid Hormone by a Two-Site Immunochemiluminometric Assay
2.10 A Sensitive Adenylate Cyclase Bioassay for Parathyroid Hormone
2.11 Immunological Properties of Asparagine versus Aspartic Acid at Residue 76 of Human Parathyroid Hormone (Residues 53-84)
3 Parathyroid Hormone-Related Protein
3.1 Parathyroid Hormone-Related Protein
4 Cyclic AMP
4.1Plasma and Urinary Cyclic AMP Assay and Clinical Application
5 Vitamin D: Assays of 25-Hydroxyvitamin D (Calcidiol) and 1,25-Dihydroxyvitamin D (Calcitriol)
5.1 Simultaneous Determination of 25-Hydroxyvitamin D2 and 25-Hydroxyvitamin D3 by High-Performance Liquid Chromatography
5.2 Competitive Protein-Binding Assay for the Diagnosis of Hyper- and Hypovitaminosis D
5.3 A Competitive Protein-Binding Assay with Second Antibody Separation for the Diagnosis of Hyper- and Hypovitaminosis D
5.4 Interlaboratory Comparison of Calcidiol Determination
5.5 A Sensitive Radioimmunoassay for 1,25-Dihydroxyvitamin D3 (Calcitriol) after High Performance Liquid Chromatography of Plasma or Serum Extracts
5.6 A Double Antibody Radioimmunoassay for measurement of 1?, 25-Dihydroxyvitamin D3
5.7 Competitive Protein-Binding Assay of Calcitriol with an Advanced Preparation of Bovine Calf Thymus Cytosol
6 Assay of Calcitonin and Related Peptides
6.1 Design of New Methods for Measuring Calcitonin and Related Peptides Using Monoclonal Antipeptide Antibodies.