Normal calcitonin level in the blood

Each laboratory must establish its own normal range for calcitonin in a blood test. These ranges depend on the makeup of the local population, the technologies used and the accuracy of the measurement. There may be also slight differences in the normal levels according to age, gender, race or ethnic origin, geographic region, diet, type of sample and other relevant status.

Your doctor will study the results along with your medical record, screenings, physical condition, symptoms and any other relevant information about your situation.

In pregnancy and lactation, there may be an increase in the normal range.

Normal ranges in newborns may be also higher than normal.

Calcitonin is a polypeptide with 32 amino acids and a molecular weight of about 3400 Da. It is produced by the parafollicular cells of the thyroid (C cells).

Normally, calcitonin is secreted in response to increased serum calcium because it inhibits the release of calcium from bone, increase the excretion of calcium in the urine and thus lowers the serum calcium concentration.

The serum half-life of calcitonin is very low, only about 12 minutes.

The calcitonin is a tumor marker. It means that it raises in the presence of a malignant tumor. Calcitonin is used in the detection of medullary carcinoma of the thyroid, a type of thyroid cancer, not very common, that only stands for the 5% to 10% of all thyroid tumors.

This test is recommended for the familiar cases of medullary carcinoma of the thyroid, because sometimes this type of cancer may be inherited. Asymptomatic family members of the affected patients benefit from this screening test because the finding of elevated levels of the hormone is useful in the early detection of tumors even with normal thyroid glands on physical examination.

Calcitonin is also useful for monitoring treatment and detecting the recurrence of disease.

Calcitonin concentrations are also elevated in some patients with cancer of the lung, breast, kidney, and liver.

Calcitonin elevation has also been reported in other benign conditions, such as pulmonary disease, pancreatitis, hyperparathyroidism, pernicious anemia, Paget's disease and pregnancy.

The following values are considered to be normal values:

IMPORTANT: These levels are expressed in pg/ml. They are an example of a healthy woman of about 40 years old with no known disease, not taking any medication and not pregnant. The ranges can be different depending on the laboratory or on your personal circumstances.