Serum calcium in juvenile delinquents.

Abstract

ERUM calcium studies were made on 51 I inmates of the New S Jersey State Home for Boys in Jamesburg. Their ages ranged from 8 to 20. I t is within this age group that a paucity of information exists in the current literature. The technic followed was that of Clark and Collip. (2)Cantarow ( I ) in his monograph on calcium metabolism regards the normal range to be from 9.2 to 1 1 mgm per 100 cc of blood.Katzenelenbogen and Goldsmith ( 5 ) in a slightly more recent review of the literature place the extreme normal limits between 8.6 and 1 2 mgm per cent. A few studies have been made exclusively on children. Mayer (6) found, among children between 4-10 years, the serum calcium to average I I .38 mgm per cent. Greisheimer, Johnson and Ryan (3) studied 22 boys between the ages of 7 to 17 and found their serum calcium ranged from 10 to 13.5 mgm per cent with an average of I I .6 mgm per cent. Sokolovitch (7) in 5 normal children reported the calcium to be between 9.72 and I 1.4 mgm per cent.The serum calcium findings of our subjects ranged between 7.6 to 12.5 mgm per cent. The distribution of cases shows that of the 5 1 1 reported about 390 fall between the range of normal limits, while 33 are below 8.6 mgm and only one above 1 2 mgm.Greisheimer (3) et al found that the blood calcium content definitely decreases with age. Their average for boys a t 1 2 years of age was I 1.6 mgm while at 78 years of age it was 10 mgm. In our study we found the averages at ages 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, and 17 to be,