Calcium metabolism evaluated by 47Ca kinetics. Methodologic aspects with optimization of a whole-body counter

Optimization of a four-crystal stretcher geometry whole-body (WB) counter was performed. The measured geometric characteristic did not differ significantly from the theoretically calculated characteristic (p greater than 0.05). The linearity of the WB counter was high in the range 3.7 kBq to 3.7 MBq. Longtime variability of local background was CV = 3.7 per cent. In vivo sensitivity was calculated to 18 cpm/kBq and the detection limit to about 5 kBq. The reproducibility was estimated to 0.7 per cent. The WB counter was used in 47Ca turnover and calcium balance studies of 15 normal individuals. The data were analysed according to a modification of the expanding calcium pool model using an improved Bauer-Carlsson-Lindquist formulation. Variability and method errors of main parameters for calcium metabolism were evaluated.