Human calcium metabolism including bone resorption measured with 41Ca tracer

Accelerator mass spectrometry is so sensitive to small quantities of 41Ca that it might be used as a tracer in the study of human calcium kinetics to generate unique kinds of data. In contrast with the use of other Ca isotopic tracers, 41Ca tracer can be so administered that the tracer movements between the various body pools achieve a quasi steady state. Resorbing bone may thus be directly measured. We have tested such a protocol against a conventional stable isotope experiment with good agreement