A FURTHER AND FINAL REPORT ON A CASE OF TETANIA PARATHYREOPRIVA, TREATED FOR A YEAR WITH PARATHYROID EXTRACT (COLLIP), WITH EVENTUAL DEATH AND AUTOPSY*

Abstract

Late in 1924, J. B. Collip announced “the extraction of a parathyroid hormone which will prevent or control parathyroid tetany and which regulates the level of blood calcium.” In a series of articles (1, 2, 3, 4), culminating in his Harvey Lecture (5) Collip presented convincing evidence of the potency of the extract. Suffice it to state that a stable and purified principle was obtained which, when injected subcutaneously into experimental animals, produced a rise in the blood serum calcium level, and which in overdosage resulted in an alarming and sometimes fatal hypercalcemia. It was furthermore shown that frequently repeated small doses of this extract are cumulative in action and will eventually raise the blood calcium to dangerous levels (values over 15 mgm.), due to a “pyramiding of the effect of each successive injection upon the preceding one.” Hence the importance of accurate and dependable blood calcium determinations to control the dosage, very much as one checks the administration of insulin b...