Metastatic calcification
Metastatic calcification refers to a type of soft tissue calcification caused by elevated serum calcium salts.
Clinical presentation
Many patients are asymptomatic in terms of the effects of soft tissue calcification but suffer various symptoms from the underlying diseases that caused the process such as chronic renal failure.
Pathology
Metastatic calcification is one of several types of soft tissue calcification from which it should be differentiated e.g. dystrophic or iatrogenic . Typical locations for metastatic calcification include the lungs (metastatic pulmonary calcification) and kidneys but the condition can also occur in the liver and heart.
Etiology
The condition can result from a variety of diseases or disease-related processes:
- chemotherapy
- chronic renal failure
- milk-alkali syndrome
- multiple myeloma
- osteolysis from malignant metastasis
- primary and secondary hyperparathyroidism
- sarcoidosis
- vitamin D intoxication
History and etymology
Rudolph Virchow first described metastatic calcification in the 1850s . Some consider the name unfortunate as it implies that there may be a cancerous malignancy to those unfamiliar with the terminology.
See also
