Regional measurement of bone calcium accretion rate and exchangeable pool with a whole-body counter: method and studies in subjects without bone disease.

A whole-body counter was used to measure the retention and distribution of radioactivity along the longitudinal axis of the body during 10 days after the intravenous injection of 50 microCi of 47Ca. These data and the simultaneous measurements of the serum specific activity allowed us to calculate, by the Bauer-Carlsson-Lindquist (BCL) formulas generalized by Marshall, the calcium accretion rate and exchangeable pool in 7 areas: skull, thorax, pelvis, thighs, knees, legs, and ankles and feet. For the whole body, the accretion rate was 336 +/- 115 mg/24 h, and the exchangeable pool 5668 +/- 1221 mg, in 26 subjects without bone disease. Both parameters were significantly correlated with body height; the exchangeable pool was significantly higher in men than in women. The accretion rate and exchangeable pool expressed on a basis of bone content varied widely from one area to another, reflecting the ratio of spongy to compact bone: the thorax, pelvis, and arms, which contain 49% of the skeletal mass, accounted for 57% of the total accretion rate and 53% of the exchangeable pool; the skull, 18% of the skeletal mass, accounted for 14% of the accretion and 11% of the pool.