The Diagnosis and Management of Severe Hypercalcaemia: A simplified approach - Report of five cases.

Hypercalcaemia is a common medical problem, can be a manifestation of many diseases and, when severe, can represent a life-threatening medical emergency. Making the correct diagnosis is important to prevent unnecessary investigations and parathyroidectomies. At Sultan Qaboos University Hospital, Oman, we have recently seen five patients with severe hypercalcaemia (calcium ≥3.5 mmol/L), most of whom had been misdiagnosed for months or even years. The clinical examination, evaluation of the fasting serum calcium, phosphate, creatinine and 24-hour urine calcium levels together with a review of their radiographs accurately predicted the pathophysiology of the disorder and successfully guided our investigative procedures well before the results of hormone assays became available.