Cerebral calcinosis

These images are from an 36 year old woman, who carried the diagnosis of Down's syndrome, with mental retardation and a question of progressive mental decline. Cerebral calcinosis, calcification of various regions of the brain, is found in a wide range of disorders, and is often found in normal people. That is, it can represent a sporadic condition with normal calcium metabolism. Less common associations are with hypoparathyroidism, pseudo-hypoparathyroidism, Fahr's familial idiopathic cerebral calcificatinon, birth anoxia, carbon monoxide intoxication, lead poisoning, Tuberous Sclerosis, Cockaynes syndrome, postinfectious encephalomyelitis, AIDS, radiation therapy, methotrexate, mitochondrial disease (Kearns-Sayer), and, as in the case shown here, Down's syndrome.
Some details have been altered to protect confidentiality.
Keith A. Johnson (keith@bwh.harvard.edu), J. Alex Becker (jabecker@mit.edu)