Serum Phosphatase, Calcium and Phosphorus Values in Infancy.

Abstract

Investigators who have been studying diagnostic procedures and standards for judging the healing or development of early rickets in infants have commented on the difficulty of making accurate judgments when these must be based upon the physical findings, roentgenological examinations, the serum calcium and serum phosphorus determinations. We have previously cited1 our belief that, through the determination of the serum phosphatase, we have a more accurate means of recognizing the early development of the disease. In this we simply agree with other investigators23 and offer additional supporting evidence. However, with our interest in this abnormal state in the infant, we were struck by the lack of any considerable data defining the normal serum phosphatase for the infant in the first year of life. The data of Jeans and Stearns4 show that the plasma phosphatase, which is low at birth, rises abruptly to a maximum during the first month, maintains this peak only a short time, and then falls rather rapidly du...