intact PTH was determined by a two-site chemiluminescent enzyme-labeled immunometric assay (Diagnostic Products Corporation, Los Angeles, CA; normal range, 10 to 65 pg/ml). We chose this method to determine PTH because it is used widely in the clinical setting, although it has been shown that this assay can overestimate PTH concentration. Moreover, it is still controversial whether the new assays that measure the whole molecule of PTH (1 to 84) reflect more accurately the bone histology compared with the intact PTH.