Symmetric Cerebral Calcification, Particularly of the Basal Ganglia, Demonstrable Roentgenographically

In the short span of approximately one and a half years 6 patients were examined at the Mayo Clinic the roentgenograms of whose skulls showed symmetric calcification of the brain, particularly in the region of the basal ganglia (fig. 1). One of these patients died, and the pathologic basis for the calcification observed roentgenographically was studied at necropsy. The characteristic roentgenographic and postmortem observations, unique in our experience, were the stimulus for this study. In the literature we found only two contributions dealing with a similar roentgenographic picture. Both were published in 1935. Fritzsche¹reported the condition as occurring in 3 siblings. Kasanin and Crank²described 1 case and gave the postmortem observations. The present paper is a report of the clinical features in the 6 cases of symmetric cerebral calcification seen at the clinic, the postmortem observations in the case of the 1 patient who died and