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<front>
<journal-meta>
<journal-id journal-id-type="publisher-id">KJIM</journal-id>
<journal-title-group>
<journal-title>The Korean Journal of Internal Medicine</journal-title><abbrev-journal-title>Korean J Intern Med</abbrev-journal-title></journal-title-group>
<issn pub-type="ppub">1226-3303</issn>
<issn pub-type="epub">2005-6648</issn>
<publisher>
<publisher-name>The Korean Association of Internal Medicine</publisher-name></publisher></journal-meta>
<article-meta>
<article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.3904/kjim.2015.055</article-id>
<article-id pub-id-type="publisher-id">kjim-2015-055</article-id>
<article-categories>
<subj-group>
<subject>Image of interest</subject></subj-group></article-categories>
<title-group>
<article-title>Widespread intracranial calcifications in a patient with hypoparathyroidism</article-title>
</title-group>
<contrib-group>
<contrib contrib-type="author">
<name><surname>Seo</surname><given-names>Jeong Young</given-names></name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="af1-kjim-2015-055"/>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author">
<name><surname>Seo</surname><given-names>Ju Hyun</given-names></name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="af1-kjim-2015-055"/>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author">
<name><surname>Choe</surname><given-names>Younghee</given-names></name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="af1-kjim-2015-055"/>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author">
<name><surname>Seok</surname><given-names>Hannah</given-names></name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="af1-kjim-2015-055"/>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author">
<name><surname>Sohn</surname><given-names>Tae-Seo</given-names></name>
<xref ref-type="corresp" rid="c1-kjim-2015-055"/>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="af1-kjim-2015-055"/>
</contrib>
<aff id="af1-kjim-2015-055">
Department of Internal Medicine, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, <country>Korea</country></aff>
</contrib-group>
<author-notes>
<corresp id="c1-kjim-2015-055">Correspondence to Tae-Seo Sohn, M.D. Tel: +82-31-820-3652 Fax: +82-31-847-2719 E-mail: <email>iamsts@gmail.com</email></corresp>
</author-notes>
<pub-date pub-type="ppub">
<month>3</month>
<year>2016</year></pub-date>
<pub-date pub-type="epub">
<day>29</day>
<month>1</month>
<year>2016</year></pub-date>
<volume>31</volume>
<issue>2</issue>
<fpage>409</fpage>
<lpage>410</lpage>
<history>
<date date-type="received">
<day>4</day>
<month>03</month>
<year>2015</year></date>
<date date-type="rev-recd">
<day>26</day>
<month>03</month>
<year>2015</year></date>
<date date-type="accepted">
<day>28</day>
<month>03</month>
<year>2015</year></date>
</history>
<permissions>
<copyright-statement>Copyright &#x000A9; 2016 The Korean Association of Internal Medicine</copyright-statement>
<copyright-year>2016</copyright-year>
<license>
<license-p>This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (<ext-link ext-link-type="uri" xlink:href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/">http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/</ext-link>) which permits unrestricted noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.</license-p></license></permissions>
</article-meta></front>
<body>
<p>A 52-year-old woman presented with facial rigidity and jerky movements of all four limbs. These movements lasted for 12 hours. She had circumoral paresthesia and spasm of the carpal and pedal muscles. She was diagnosed with anxiety disorder 2 months ago, and had previously undergone cataract operations on both eyes separately (left eye, 2 days prior to admission; right eye, 4 years ago). She had no history of surgery or irradiation around the neck or central nervous system disturbances such as seizure. She seemed anxious but fully conscious and well oriented. The physical examination revealed an ipsilateral contraction of the facial muscles when tapping the facial nerve (Chvostek sign). Spasm of the hand muscles was induced by inflating a blood pressure cuff above the systolic blood pressure (Trousseau sign). Laboratory tests showed the following: serum calcium, 4.8 mg/dL (normal range, 8.2 to 10.2); ionized calcium, 0.68 mmol/L (normal range, 1.13 to 1.32); phosphorus, 4.6 mg/dL (normal range, 2.5 to 4.5); albumin, 4.4 g/dL (normal range, 3.8 to 5.3); magnesium, 1.9 mg/dL (normal range, 1.9 to 4.1); intact parathyroid hormone, 1.20 pg/mL (normal range, 8 to 76); and 25(OH) vitamin D, 20.95 ng/mL (normal range, 30 to 100). Brain computed tomography showed extensive bilateral symmetrical calcifications in the cerebellar dentate nuclei (<xref rid="f1-kjim-2015-055" ref-type="fig">Fig. 1A</xref>), basal ganglia (<xref rid="f1-kjim-2015-055" ref-type="fig">Fig. 1B</xref>), and periventricular white matter (<xref rid="f1-kjim-2015-055" ref-type="fig">Fig. 1C</xref>). Because no specific cause of hypoparathyroidism was identified, the patient was diagnosed with idiopathic hypoparathyroidism. With the use of intravenous calcium, oral calcium supplements, and a vitamin D analog, the patient&#x02019;s symptoms improved gradually. Intracranial calcification is physiological in 0.3% to 1.5% of subjects. The most common pathologic causes are hypoparathyroidism and pseudohypoparathyroidism. Other causes are tuberous sclerosis, mitochondrial disease, Fahr syndrome, familial idiopathic basal ganglia calcification, and post-infection. The pathogenic mechanism of basal ganglia calcification in hypoparathyroidism is not clear. Its occurrence is believed to be high serum calcium-phosphorous products and poor calcium control.</p>
</body>
<back>
<fn-group><fn fn-type="conflict"><p>No potential conflict of interest relevant to this article was reported.</p></fn></fn-group>
<sec sec-type="display-objects">
<title>Figure</title>
<fig id="f1-kjim-2015-055" position="float">
<label>Figure 1.</label><caption><p>Brain computed tomography shows diffuse symmetric parenchymal calcifications involving the cerebellar dentate nuclei (A), basal ganglia (B), and periventricular white matter (C).</p></caption>
<graphic xlink:href="kjim-2015-055f1.tif"/>
</fig>
</sec>
</back></article>