Determination of fractional absorption of dietary calcium in humans

Four dual-isotopic label methods for determining true fractional absorption of dietary calcium were compared in 23 subjects. The ratio of the integrals of oral label in a 24-h pooled urine to intravenous label in the same urine is called alpha 24h and was taken as the standard against which the others were compared. alpha Spot is the ratio of the fraction of oral label to the fraction of intravenous label in a single urine specimen; alpha Lag is the ratio of the level of oral label in blood 4 h after administration to the level of intravenous label in blood 2 h after administration. alpha Dec is obtained by deconvoluting response to the intravenous label from the response to the oral tracer. Results were as follows: alpha 24h = 0.273 +/- 0.124, alpha Dec = 0.300 +/- 0.101 (n = 14), alpha Spot = 0.359 +/- 0.179, and alpha Lag = 0.271 +/- 0.103. The Bland-Altman approach for comparison of methods was used to show that results for alpha Spot and alpha Lag can be expected, with a 95% confidence limit, to differ from the value of alpha 24h by 60 and 69%, respectively. The results for alpha Dec were shown to be not only indistinguishable from alpha 24h but identical from a theoretical perspective.