A case of idiopathic cerebral calcification manifesting itself as a Parkinsonism

This paper is a case presentation of a idiopathic cerebral calcification manifesting itself as a Parkinsonism. The patient, a 48-year-old female, was admitted to this hospital with a chief complaint of gait disturbance that had developed over the previous four months. On admission she was noted to have a slight dimunition of her mental capacity, a rigidity of her extremities (more pronounced in the lower limbs), and akinesia, though no tremor. CT scans revealed extensive areas of calcification in the central nervous system, encompassing the cerebral basal ganglia (corpus striatum), the cerebellum, the midbrain, and the gray and white matter of the cerebrum. There was no evidence of calcification in the spinal cord. Physical and laboratory examinations did not yield any findings suggestive of abnormalities in calcium metabolism, nor was there any indication that her condition was of a familial nature. The case was concluded, therefore, to be idiopathic. Amelioration in the symptoms occurred following the administration of L-dopa. (author)