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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 6, 2026

Measurement of Total Calcium in Neurons by Electron Probe X-ray Microanalysis

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Published on: November 20, 2013

Calcium: total or ionized?

Patricia A Schenck¹, Dennis J Chew

¹Endocrine Diagnostic Section, Diagnostic Center for Population and Animal Health, Department of Pathobiology and Diagnostic Investigation, Michigan State University, 4125 Beaumont Road, Lansing, MI 48910, USA. schenck5@msu.edu

The Veterinary Clinics of North America. Small Animal Practice

|April 12, 2008

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Directly measuring ionized calcium (iCa) is crucial for assessing calcium status, as total calcium (tCa) is unreliable. Anaerobic iCa measurement is most accurate, while aerobic measurement with pH correction is also highly reliable.

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Area of Science:

Clinical Chemistry
Biomedical Science
Veterinary Medicine

Background:

Serum total calcium (tCa) measurement is commonly used to assess calcium status.
Only the ionized calcium (iCa) fraction of calcium in serum possesses biological activity.
Serum tCa levels do not consistently reflect true iCa status across various clinical conditions.

Purpose of the Study:

To highlight the limitations of serum tCa measurements for assessing calcium status.
To emphasize the necessity of directly measuring serum iCa for accurate assessment.
To compare the reliability of different methods for measuring serum iCa.

Main Methods:

Direct measurement of serum ionized calcium (iCa).
Anaerobic blood collection and measurement under controlled conditions for optimal reliability.
Aerobic iCa measurement with species-specific pH correction as a validated alternative.

Main Results:

Serum tCa is an inaccurate predictor of iCa status in many clinical scenarios.
Direct measurement of iCa provides the most accurate assessment of calcium status.
Aerobic iCa measurements, when corrected for species-specific pH, show a high correlation with anaerobic measurements.

Conclusions:

Direct measurement of serum iCa is essential for accurate assessment of calcium status.
Anaerobic measurement of iCa offers the most reliable results.
Species-specific pH-corrected aerobic iCa measurements provide a highly correlated and reliable alternative to anaerobic methods.