Intestinal calcium absorption in rheumatoid arthritis. A study using whole body counting

Conflicting results are reported in the literature concerning the changes in intestinal calcium absorption in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). In the present work, intestinal calcium absorption was studied in 27 postmenopausal women with RA, using whole body counting as the study method and orally administered Ca-47 as the tracer. Nobody was on corticosteroid therapy, but all received non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and hydroxy chloroquine or gold compounds. The mean calcium absorption was 22.3% of the dose administered, with a standard deviation of 8.0%. The results obtained were not significantly different from those of 40 age- and sex-matched controls (mean +/- SD: 22.0% +/- 6.0%). Our findings seem to exclude the hypothesis of calcium malabsorption as one of the causes leading to osteoporosis in RA.