Dinnerstein Eric, McDonald Brenna C, Cleavinger Howard B, Thadani Vijay M, Jobst Barbara C
Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, Section of Neurology, Lebanon, NH, USA.
Seizure. 2008 Apr;17(3):292-5. doi: 10.1016/j.seizure.2007.07.013. Epub 2007 Sep 4.
Seizures induced by hypercalcemia are rare. A few case reports of seizures associated with hypercalcemia have been published, but none due to the milk alkali syndrome. This is the first report regarding seizures associated with calcium carbonate overuse. The two patients described in this article, who had no risk factors for developing epilepsy, suffered from status epilepticus probably induced by hypercalcemia. Subsequently, they both developed complex partial seizures, and were later found to have mesial temporal sclerosis on MRI. There are no reports linking hypercalcemia to mesial temporal sclerosis. While this may be a coincidence, there is reason to suspect that the development of persistent epilepsy, possibly due to mesial temporal sclerosis, was caused by prolonged seizures induced by hypercalcemia.