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Updated: Aug 17, 2026

Cytosolic Calcium Measurements in Renal Epithelial Cells by Flow Cytometry
Published on: October 28, 2014
Calcium absorptive efficiency is positively related to body size
M Janet Barger-Lux1, Robert P Heaney
1Creighton University, 601 North 30th Street, Suite 4841, Omaha, Nebraska 68131, USA.
Background:
Calcium absorption efficiency is a more important determinant of calcium balance than calcium intake itself. The sources of variability in absorptive performance are only partly elucidated.
Purpose:
The aim of the study was to explore the relationship between body size and calcium absorption efficiency.
Design And Setting:
Metabolic studies were performed on an inpatient metabolic unit in an academic health sciences center.
Subjects:
One hundred seventy-eight women, with an average age of 50.2 yr, were studied from one to five times and yielded an aggregate data set containing 633 individual studies.
Methods:
Calcium absorption fraction was measured by the dual-tracer method. Observed values were expressed as residuals from predicted values for each woman's actual calcium intake, using the previously published relationship between intake and absorption.
Results:
Absorption residuals were significantly positively correlated with height, weight, and surface area, and after adjusting for estrogen status, these body size variables accounted for approximately 4% of the total variability.
Conclusion:
The magnitude of the effect is such that a woman 1.8 m in height would absorb 30+% more calcium from a given intake than a woman 1.4 m tall.
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