Calcitonin has been considered to be useful in the treatment of
osteoporosis due to its remarkable suppressive action on
bone resorption as well as its putative stimulative effect on bone formation. However, its usefullness, especially the effect for decreasing the loss of bone mass in
osteoporosis has not been proved substantially. We have studied this point using
eel calcitonin derivative,
elcatonin , in relatively low doses with and without
calcium supplement. Bone mass was evaluated by microdensitometry of the roentgenograms of the second metacarpal bone. One hundred and thirty cases of postmenopausal and senile osteoporotics were divided into the following four groups and studied for six months: A)
calcium and
elcatonin treated group, B)
calcium treated group, C)
elcatonin treated group, D) control group.
Elcatonin was administered intramuscularly 10 units once a week, and
calcium was given 700 mg for every day. The results of metacarpal densitometry revealed the signs of significant increase of the bone mass in the
calcium and
elcatonin treated (A) group compared with the control (D) group, while the changes in the other groups (B and C) were not significant. It was shown that
elcatonin had the significant
analgesic effect for the
back pain in the patients. Serum iPTH was not increased and the antibody for
elcatonin was not detected in
elcatonin treated patients. Although the study period is rather short, necessitating further studies, at present, our study suggests that the use of
calcitonin with
calcium supplements had the place in the treatment of
osteoporosis.