Hypophosphataemia in general practice patients
- Resource Type
- Authors
- J M Guy; M F Stewart; J R McMurray; G Horsman; A O Olukoga
- Source
- Annals of clinical biochemistry. 36
- Subject
- Adult
Male
030213 general clinical medicine
medicine.medical_specialty
Hypophosphatemia
Clinical Biochemistry
030209 endocrinology & metabolism
Lower limit
03 medical and health sciences
0302 clinical medicine
Reference Values
Internal medicine
Blood plasma
medicine
Humans
Aged
Retrospective Studies
Aged, 80 and over
Chemistry
Incidence (epidemiology)
Incidence
Metabolic disorder
Retrospective cohort study
General Medicine
Middle Aged
medicine.disease
United Kingdom
Surgery
Plasma phosphate
General practice
Female
Family Practice
- Language
- ISSN
- 0004-5632
We compared plasma phosphate concentrations in general practice patients and hospital inpatients and outpatients over an 8-month period. The distribution of results in all three groups was similar and 12–16% of results were at or below 0·8 mmol/L. In general practice patients, 8·3% of results from males and 12·1% from females were below the lower limit of their respective reference ranges. Eighteen of these patients (0·2% of results) had plasma phosphate concentrations ⩽ 0·4 mmol/L. On follow-up, only two of these patients had any attributable cause for their severe hypophosphataemia; in the remainder, it was unexpected and unexplained. Hypophosphataemia in outpatients and general practice patients is more common than has previously been appreciated. We present a strategy for further investigation of these patients.