Idiopathic hypercalcaemia of chronic dialysis.

Three women on different forms of maintenance dialysis developed persistent steroid-responsive idiopathic hypercalcaemia, with low calcium absorption, severe skeletal decalcification, multiple fractures, and severe clinical problems. Bone histology showed osteomalacia with suppression of osteoblast activity and no hyperparathyroidism. The disease persists at least six months after transplantation. The features are compatible with poisoning by a toxin with many similar properties to aluminium: we only found significant aluminium overload in one of these cases.