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Jai Ganesh

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Calcification

Calcification

Gist

Calcification occurs when you have a buildup of excess calcium in your body. Calcium deposits can form all over your body, including in your soft tissues, arteries and organs. Some calcium deposits are harmless, but others can be a sign of a serious health condition.

Summary

Calcification happens when calcium builds up in tissue, blood vessels, or organs, causing them to harden. Treatment will depend on the severity and location of the calcification and can range from medication to surgery.

Calcification happens when calcium builds up in body tissue, blood vessels, or organs. This buildup can harden and disrupt your body’s natural processes.

Calcium is transported through the bloodstream. It’s also found in every cell. As a result, calcification can occur in almost any part of the body.

According to the National Academy of Medicine (formerly the Institute of Medicine), about 99% of your body’s calcium is in your teeth and bones. The other 1% is in the blood, muscles, fluid outside the cells, and other body tissues.

Some disorders cause calcium to deposit where it doesn’t typically belong. Over time, this can add up and cause problems. You may need treatment to prevent complications if you have this extra calcium buildup.

Types of calcification

Calcifications can form in many places throughout your body, including:

* small and large arteries
* heart valves
* brain, where it’s known as cranial calcification
* joints and tendons, such as knee joints and rotator cuff tendons
* soft tissues like breasts, muscles, and fat
* kidney, bladder, and gallbladder

Some calcium buildup is harmless. These deposits are believed to be the body’s response to inflammation, injury, or certain biological processes. But some calcifications can disrupt organ function and affect blood vessels.

According to the Division of Cardiology at UCLA School of Medicine, most adults older than 60 have calcium deposits in their blood vessels.

Causes of calcification

Many factors play a role in calcification, including:

* infections
* calcium metabolism disorders that cause hypercalcemia (too much calcium in the blood)
* genetic or autoimmune disorders affecting the skeletal system and connective tissues
* persistent inflammation

According to Harvard University, a common misconception is that calcifications are caused by a calcium-rich diet. But researchers haven’t found a link between dietary calcium and a higher risk for calcium deposits.

This is also true for kidney stones. Most kidney stones are made of calcium oxalate. People who get calcium oxalate stones release more calcium in their urine than those who don’t. This disparity happens no matter how much calcium people have in their diets.

Details

Calcification is the accumulation of calcium salts in a body tissue. It normally occurs in the formation of bone, but calcium can be deposited abnormally in soft tissue, causing it to harden. Calcifications may be classified on whether there is mineral balance or not, and the location of the calcification. Calcification may also refer to the processes of normal mineral deposition in biological systems, such as the formation of stromatolites or mollusc shells.

Signs and symptoms

Calcification can manifest itself in many ways in the body depending on the location.

In the pulpal structure of a tooth, calcification often presents asymptomatically, and is diagnosed as an incidental finding during radiographic interpretation. Individual teeth with calcified pulp will typically respond negatively to vitality testing; teeth with calcified pulp often lack sensation of pain, pressure, and temperature.

Causes of soft tissue calcification

Calcification of soft tissue (arteries, cartilage, heart valves, etc.) can be caused by vitamin K2 deficiency or by poor calcium absorption due to a high calcium/vitamin D ratio. This can occur with or without a mineral imbalance.

A common misconception is that calcification is caused by excess amount of calcium in diet. Dietary calcium intake is not associated with accumulation of calcium in soft tissue, and calcification occurs irrespective of the amount of calcium intake.

Intake of excessive vitamin D can cause vitamin D poisoning and excessive intake of calcium from the intestine which, when accompanied by a deficiency of vitamin K (perhaps induced by an anticoagulant), can result in calcification of arteries and other soft tissue. Such metastatic soft tissue calcification is mainly in tissues containing "calcium catchers" such as elastic fibres or mucopolysaccharides. These tissues especially include the lungs (pumice lung) and the aorta.

Mineral balance

* Dystrophic calcification, without a systemic mineral imbalance.
* Metastatic calcification, a systemic elevation of calcium levels in the blood and all tissues.

Forms

Calcification can be pathological or a standard part of the aging process. Nearly all adults show calcification of the pineal gland.

Location

* Extraskeletal calcification, e.g. calciphylaxis
* Brain, e.g. primary familial brain calcification (Fahr's syndrome)
*Choroid plexus usually in the lateral ventricles
* Tumor calcification
* Arthritic bone spurs
* Kidney stones
* Gall stones
* Heterotopic bone
* Tonsil stones
* Pulp stone

Breast disease

In a number of breast pathologies, calcium is often deposited at sites of cell death or in association secretions or hyalinized stroma, resulting in pathologic calcification. For example, small, irregular, linear calcifications may be seen, via mammography, in a ductal carcinoma-in-situ to produce visible radio-opacities.

Arteriosclerotic calcification

One of the principal causes of arterial stiffening with age is vascular calcification. Vascular calcification is the deposition of mineral in the form of calcium phosphate salts in the smooth muscle-rich medial layer of large arteries including the aorta. DNA damage, especially oxidative DNA damage, causes accelerated vascular calcification. Vascular calcification could also be linked to the chronic leakage of blood lysates into the vessel wall since red blood cells have been shown to contain a high concentration of calcium.

Diagnosis

In terms of diagnosis, in this case vascular calcification, an ultrasound and radiography of said area is sufficient.

Treatment

Treatment of high calcium/vitamin D ratio may most easily be accomplished by intake of more vitamin D if vitamin K is normal. Intake of too much vitamin D would be evident by anorexia, loss of appetite, or soft tissue calcification.

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