Renal Handling of Phosphate in Renal Failure

The renal handling of phosphate in patients with renal failure has received considerable attention. Goldman and Bassett (1954) found that tubular reabsorption of phosphate (TRP) decreases as renal failure progresses. They concluded that this phenomenon is responsible for the maintenance of the concentration of inorganic phosphorus in blood until the glomerular filtration rate (GFR) decreases to 20–30% of normal. Similar observations have been reported by Better et al. (1967), Kleeman et al. (1967), Coburn et al. (1969), and Popovtzer et al. (1970b) (Fig. 1).