What is the Parathyroid Hormone?
The parathyroid hormone helps regulate the amount of phosphorus and calcium in the fluid that surrounds human cells. The human body produces the parathyroid prohormone, which is matured and excreted into the blood stream with amino acids. Once in the blood stream, the hormone works to support bone health by regulating the amount of calcium in bone and controlling how much calcium is excreted in urine.
If the amount of calcium found in blood is higher than expected your doctor may order a parathyroid hormone test. The test not only reveals how much parathyroid hormone is present in the blood sample, it also shows the doctor how well the parathyroid gland is functioning.
Normal Value Range
- Negative Pregnancy Adult: 8 to 51 pg/ML or 8 to 51 ng/L
- Pregnancy Trimester One: 10 to 15 pg/ML or 10 to 25 ng/L
- Pregnancy Trimester Two: 18 to 25 pg/ML or 18 to 25 ng/L
- Pregnancy Trimester Three: 9 to 26 pg/ML or 9 to 26 ng/L
Higher than normal parathyroid hormone levels can be caused by kidney disease, calcium deficiency, breastfeeding, pregnancy and disorders associated with too little vitamin D.
Low levels of parathyroid hormones are often measured in patients with certain forms of cancer, chronic excessive calcium intake and hypoparathyroidism.