IMAS Rheumatology Service, University Hospitals del Mar and L'Esperanca, Barcelona, Spain.
The role of calcium in bone metabolism, optimal calcium intake, the use of calcium as monotherapy for osteoporosis or in combination with other drugs and the differences between various calcium salts are reviewed. Calcium is an essential element in bone mineralization and formation. There are sufficient data supporting the use of calcium in the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis and calcium in combination with vitamin D is widely used in the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis mainly in elderly patients, although its indication in postmenopausal osteoporosis is not yet clear. Numerous calcium preparations are available on the market and differ only in regard to their bioavailability. However, this difference has very little clinical significance except in patients with achlorhydria or elderly persons with low gastric secretion, in which cases pidolate and calcium citrate can be used since they are more efficiently absorbed. (c) 1999 Prous Science. All rights reserved.