Hypercalcaemia--a hospital survey.

In order to provide information about the prevalence of hypercalcaemia and its different causes, a retrospective survey was carried out in all hospital in-patients in whom serum calcium was elevated. Six hundred and forty-four cases were seen in two years and eight months, but a number of these were excluded as being spurious measurements leaving 496 cases of genuine hypercalcaemia. Four hundred and sixty-nine records (95 per cent) were successfully traced and analysed. Two hundred and nineteen cases of hypercalcaemia with malignancy were found together with 68 cases with chronic renal failure and 59 cases of primary hyperparathyroidism. In 102 cases no cause was identified.