Background: Calcitonin (hCT) - produced by the C-cells of the thyroid gland - plays an essential part in diagnosis and follow-up of medullary thyroid cancer. To increase specificity of this tumor marker, several stimulation tests have been developed e.g. pentagastrin-stimulation test. Since pentagastrin is no longer available in the United States of America, it seems important to evaluate whether calcium stimulation is equivalent to pentagastrin stimulation for this purpose. Our aim was to investigate healthy adults in order to determine the normal range of stimulated serum hCT levels (applying the two-site chemiluminescent immunometric assay IMMULITE®2000 Calcitonin) and to compare intravenous calcitonin stimulation in an intraindividual study set-up using either pentagastrin or calcium as agent. Methods: Having obtained approval from the local Ethics Committee we included 50 healthy, non-smoking volunteers aged 22 - 57 years (25 women) showing no evidence of thyroid abnormality in a preceding screening. 42 subjects – after having given written informed consent – participated in both intravenous stimulation tests, which were performed on separate days using either Pentagastrin (0.5 μg/kg bodyweight over 10 seconds) or calcium gluconate 10% (calcium 2.5 mg/kg bodyweight at a rate of 10ml/min). Tested subjects were committed to fasting before stimulation; drawing of blood samples (at baseline, immediately after application and after 2, 5 and 15 min.). We used a solid phase, enzyme-labeled, two-site chemiluminescent immunometric assay (IMMULITE 2000 Calcitonin) to measure serum hCT. Results: Baseline values did not differ significantly between males and females (mean: 2.6±1.3 vs. 1.6±1.3 pg/ml; 95th percentile 5.0 vs. 5.7 pg/ml). Calcium yielded a greater rise in hCT than did pentagastrin (men: p<0.001; women: p<0.001). Referring to the value of the 95th percentile: after Pentagastrin stimulation maximal hCT-peak of 37.8 pg/ml in men (26.2 pg/ml in women); after calcium stimulation maximal hCT-peak of 95.4 pg/ml in men (90.2pg/ml in women). Conclusions: We established a reference range for basal and stimulated hCT for healthy adults using an automated chemiluminescent assay, which are lower than reported for other methods. Our results emphasize that adequate reference values need to be validated individually for the assay used as well as for the method of stimulation. see also: Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (Aug 2009, 94 (8): 2970-4) Potency and Tolerance of Calcitonin Stimulation with High-Dose Calcium versus Pentagastrin in Normal Adults. Patricia Doyle, Christian Düren, Kai Nerlich, Frederik A. Verburg, Inge Grelle, Hanne Jahn, Martin Fassnacht, Uwe Mäder, Christoph Reiners, and Markus Luster