Prevalence of incidental basal ganglia calcification on routine brain computed tomography

Objective To assess the prevalence of incidental basal ganglia calcifications among patients having a brain computed tomography (CT) scan for non- related causes. Methods All brain CT scan performed at Princess Basma Hospital from February 2006 to July 2006 were retrospectively reviewed and interpreted by the same neuro- radiologist. The cohort was divided into two groups according to gender and three groups according to age groups. Blood was withdrawn only for those with brain calcifications for complete blood count, kidney function tests, calcium profile, vitamin D level and parathyroid hormone. Results A total of 1040 CT scans were included in the study; 552 were males. The overall prevalence of basal ganglia calcifications was 1.25 %.{0.72% for males vs. 1.85% for females; Odds Ratio=2.57 (0.72-9.98), Relative Risk=2.55 (0.79-8.21), p=0.1}. The prevalence increased with increasing age; being 0.6% in younger age group vs. 2.4% in those above 60 years. Elevated parathyroid hormone was found in 6 patients; of whom only one proved to have low vitamin D-3 level. Conclusion The prevalence of basal ganglia calcifications was quite low in this cohort and showed a steep increase with increasing age. High parathyroid hormone was one of the important biochemical abnormalities that warrant further evaluation and investigation in a large cross sectional cohort to identify direct cause-effect relationship.