Calcium and Phosphate Homeostasis

Calcium and phosphate are critical to human physiology (e.g. neuromuscular function) and are also needed for skeletal mineralization. An understanding of calcium and phosphate metabolism is required for the clinician to evaluate disorders of the levels of calcium and phosphorus as well as metabolic skeletal disorders. In this chapter, we review calcium and phosphate homeostasis including the critical organs involved (skeleton, parathyroids, GI tract, kidneys etc.) as well as the hormones (PTH, vitamin D, FGF23, calcitonin) that regulate calcium and phosphate. For complete coverage of all related areas of Endocrinology, please visit our on-line FREE web-text, WWW.ENDOTEXT.ORG.