A case of teriparatide-induced severe hypophosphatemia and hypercalcemia

Abstract

PTH (teriparatide) is used in the treatment of osteoporosis, and can sometimes cause transient hypercalcemia, but to date there have been no reports of persistent hypercalcemia and hypophosphatemia resulting from its use. We describe a case with marked hypophosphatemia and hypercalcemia associated with the use of teriparatide. The patient was a 49-year-old woman who was followed up for acute intermittent porphyria and glucocorticoid-induced osteoporosis (following administration of prednisolone at 22.5 mg/day), and presented with unexplained fracture of the left tibia, for which treatment with teriparatide at 20 μg/day was started. Two weeks after treatment with teriparatide, the patient developed hypophosphatemia, hypercalcemia, hyperalkaline phosphatasemia, low TmP/GFR, FEca, BAP, and urinary NT×, with low intact PTH. These changes were considered to be related to teriparatide. Cessation of teriparatide treatment resulted in normalization of all parameters at 10 weeks (serum P 3.6 mg/dl, corrected Ca 8.8 mg/dl, ALP 273 IU/l, intact PTH 63 pg/ml). The observed abnormalities were considered to be in part related to acute intermittent porphyria, which is known to delay hepatic teriparatide clearance, with subsequent delay of PTH action despite its intermittent use, resulting in hypercalcemia and hypophosphatemia.