REVERSIBLE METASTATIC CALCIFICATION (MILK DRINKER'S SYNDROME)

Abstract

Burnett and co-workers,¹ in 1949, first reported metastatic calcification associated with excessive intake of milk and alkali in patients with chronic peptic ulcer and renal insufficiency. While all of their six patients showed clinical improvement when milk and alkali were withdrawn from the diet, none showed resorption of the calcinosis and none survived. Since that time a case has been reported with clinical improvement and survival following gastrectomy for the peptic ulcer, although the calcinosis persisted.² Another case was presented with acute symptoms resembling gout in which both the symptoms and the calcinosis decreased when milk and alkali were withdrawn but recurred when the former high milk and alkali diet³ was resumed. Wermer, Kuschner, and Riley⁴ reported an instance of disappearance of extensive skeletal and subcutaneous metastatic calcifications within eight months after milk and alkali were removed from the diet. Their patient, a 67-year-old man, died