Serum Calcium Levels in Skeletal Tuberculosis

Objective: to evaluate the serum calcium levels in the patients suffering from tuberculosis of various bones and joints. design: observational case series. place and duration of the study: the department of orthopedics unit-i liaquat university of medical and health sciences jamshoro from december 2006 to november 2007. patients and methods: forty-one patients, age 06-75 years, of either gender suffering from tuberculosis of various bones and joints were evaluated for the serum calcium levels. there were 14 males and 27 females with male-female ratio of 2:3. the involved bones and joints included knee (19.51%), dorsal spine (17%), elbow (14.63%), ankle (14.63%), wrist (12.19%), hip (9.75%), shoulder (7.31%) and ilium (4.87%). results: serum calcium level range was 1.7-mg/dl, minimum 5.50 mg/dl and maximum was 7.20 mg/dl. mean±sd calcium level was 7.50±0.92 mg/dl, median 7.50 mg/dl and mode was 7.40 mg/dl. conclusion: the serum calcium levels in patients suffering from skeletal tuberculosis appea to be low.