Determination of reference value for serum ionized calcium and the observation of its changes in patients with hypoalbuminemia

In order to determine the normal reference value of serum ionized calcium and thechanges of serum ionized calcium in patients with hypoalbuminemia,serum ionized calcium con-centrations of 130 normal people were measured with the NOVA-Nucleus automatic analyzerand the rates of serum ionized calcium and total calcium in 64 patients with hypoalbuminemiawere compared. The results of the normal reference ranges for serum ionized calcium is 0. 97±0. 08 mmol/L and the normalized ionized calcium is 1. 25±0. 10 mmol/L. In patients with hy-poalbuminemia,the total serum calcium was significantly lower than that of the control group(P0. 01) and there was no significant changes in serum ionized calcium (P0. 05). The ab-normal rates between the concentrations of total and the ionized calcium were significant (P0.01). Since serum ionized calcium plays physiological function in the body, determination of ion-ized calcium is more significant than that of the total calcium.