Paget's bone disease treated with diphosphonate and calcitonin

Abstract

Patients with biochemically active Paget's disease were treated with a combination of disodium ethane-1-hydroxy-1, 1-diphosphonate (E.H.D.P.) and synthetic human calcitonin in low doses. The effect on biochemistry was greater and more consistent than that of even higher doses of human calcitonin. Bone biopsy showed decrease or even disappearance of abnormal osteoblasts and osteoclasts from pagetic lesions, and the addition of calcitonin to E.H.D.P. prevented the development of mineralisation defects.