Abnormalities in which of the following can lead to an artificially high calcium level?
Hypercalcemia
Hypercalcemia can lead to fatigue, depression, and confusion. It presents with the classic presentation of bones (bone pain), groans (abdominal pain), stones (renal stones) and psychic moans (or overtones if you prefer).
It can be caused by lithium use (and thiazide diuretics).
About 50% of serum calcium is bound to plasma proteins (mainly albumin). This means that abnormalities in albumin can cause abnormal (as an artefact) calcium results. For this reason a corrected calcium is usually included in a patient's blood results.
