In medicine, hypocalcaemia is the presence of less than a total calcium of 2.2 mmol/L (9mg/dl), or an ionized calcium of less than 1.1 mmol/L (4.5 mg/dL) in the serum.
The presence of chronic diarrhea or intestinal disease, such as is observed with Crohn disease, sprue, or chronic pancreatitis, suggests the possibility of hypocalcemia due to malabsorption of calcium and/or vitamin D. Previous neck surgery suggests hypoparathyroidism; a history of seizures suggests hypocalcemia secondary to anticonvulsants.
In a patient with hypocalcemia, the serum albumin is essential to the diagnosis of true hypocalcemia, which involves a reduction in ionized serumcalcium, or to the diagnosis of "factitious" hypocalcemia, meaning decreased total, but not ionized, calcium.
In patients with hypocalcemia and chronic renal failure, the dietary intake of phosphate should be lowered to 400-800 mg/d to prevent hyperphosphatemia.
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