Parathyroid Hormone Levels in Healthy Children and Adolescents

Parathyroid hormone (PTH) is important in the assessment of calcium metabolism disorders. However, there are few data regarding PTH levels in childhood and adolescence.

The aim of this study was to determine PTH levels in a large group of healthy children and adolescents.

We retrospectively evaluated PTH levels in 1,580 healthy Caucasian children and adolescents (849 females, 731 males, aged 2.0-17.2 years) with 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] levels ≥ 30 ng/ml. All subjects with genetic, endocrine, hepatic, renal, or other known diseases were excluded.

The serum intact PTH concentration (median and inter-quartile range) was 23.00 (15.00-31.60) pg/ml. In our population, the mean 25(OH)D value was 34.27 ± 4.12 ng/ml. The median PTH concentration in boys was 23.00 (15.00-32.00) pg/ml, whereas in girls it was 23.10 (15.00-31.10) pg/ml. However, in girls, PTH levels significantly increased in the age group of 8.1-10.0 years compared to the age group of 2.1-4.0 years (p < 0.0001), whereas in boys it significantly increased in the age groups of 10.1-12.0 years (p < 0.0001) and 12.1-14.0 years (p < 0.0001), leading to the hypothesis of a relationship between PTH level and pubertal and bone growth spurts.

PTH levels in healthy children and adolescents covered a narrower range than the adult values. Obtaining reference values of PTH in childhood and adolescence could aid in the estimation of appropriate values of bone metabolites.