Hi,

I'm just doing some research for my mother.

Recently my mother's rheumatologist told her that her blood tests indicated
something a bit abnormal. He wasn't specific, but mentioned that it had
something to do with the heart or some cardiac process. He gave her a copy
of the test results, and told her to consult with her GP who she shall be
seeing in a few weeks.

I looked at the results, and the only thing that is elevated is something
called VPM. I've done my share of Googling, but the only thing I can find
are scholarly medical articles which go way over my head and which are meant
for readers who already know what VPM is.

FYI, my mother was diagnosed with RA in 1999 and is on a weekly dosage of
methotraxate. She was originally taking that in combination with cortisone
(either in pill form or shots), in addition to a follow-up of folic acid as
well as daily calcium tablets. About 2 years ago, the specialist took her
off the prednisone and last February (2006) told her to stop taking the
daily calcium.

During her last visit with the specialist (a few weeks ago), he asked
whether her GP was testing her for calcium (whatever that means). She
replied no. He then brought up the aforementioned cardiac problem that was
supposedly indicated in her blood work. He didn't explain the results to
her, but merely told her to show it to the GP (for whatever reason, test
results aren't being sent to both the specialist and the GP).

When I looked at the results, the only thing that was marked "high" and out
of the normal boundaries was that VPM thing.... so I have to presume that
this is the component that is somehow linked to the whole cardiac issue
which the specialist talked about. Recently I read a little article about
how calcium is now being considered as an even bigger threat than
cholesterol, the whole in terms of inducing cardiac problems. The fact that
the specialist took her off the calcium and talked about calcium tests,
makes me think that this is the issue which created the spike in her blood
test results.

So, does anybody here have some info on VPM and/or calcium?

Anyway, sorry for the long post and sorrier even more if I am not posting
this to the appropriate newsgroup. Any comments would be appreciated!

Regards,

Greg