[Calcification of the basal ganglia and Fahr disease. Report of two clinical cases and review of the literature]

Abstract

Computed Tomography (CT) is superior to conventional skull radiographs in detecting calcifications of the basal ganglia. Basal ganglia calcification has been associated with different conditions, abnormality in the calcium-phosphorus metabolism being the most common of these associations. Some patients, without any evident disease, are well documented and called idiopathics of Fahr's syndrome; less numerous patients present familiar trait, with autosomal dominant inheritance. The correlation of neurological impairment with symmetrical calcification of basal ganglia is not so frequent. Here we present two cases of Fahr's disease, in whom CT aspects were very similar, but the neurological manifestations were different. The review of the literature shows, now, that there is no definite pathogenesis of basal ganglia calcifications.