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An unusual cause of a discharging sinus
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Calcinosis cutis.
Calcinosis cutis is characterised by the deposition of calcium salts in the subcutaneous tissues of the body. Metastatic calcifications can occur in the body in hyperparathyroidism and end stage renal disease.1 Calcifications can also occur in a variety of other clinical settings. The lesion can present as a mass and is amenable to FNAC.2 In cytological preparations, deposits of calcium salts can be both amorphous and refractile on Diff-Quik and Papanicolaou stain. However, the material may not be birefringent with these stains. Alizarin red S stain for calcium permits demonstration of the characteristic birefringence.2
A group of extremely small bacteria capable of precipitating calcium salts implicated in the pathogenesis of urinary calculi and calcific atherosclerosis have been identified as the nanobacteria. The pathogenesis of calcinosis cutis and its significance in conjunction with a variety of unrelated scarring and pre-existing cutaneous entities are incompletely understood. In a series of
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- An unusual cause of a discharging sinus
- K M Marya and V Yadav
Postgrad. Med. J. 2003 79: 420.[Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]
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