A Case of Calciphylaxis: Case Report

Abstract

A young woman on hemodialysis with hyperparathyroidism suddenly developed areas of skin necrosis caused by arterial calcification. Parathyroidectomy apparently arrested this process. Seven months after cadaver kidney transplantation, following reparation of a graft artery stenosis, necrosis spread anew from the wound gradually extending to large areas. The patient died and autopsy revealed calcification in many internal organs. The case fits the description of systemic calciphylaxis a syndrome now described in humans but originally experimentally induced in rats.