Abdominal calcifications in infants and children.

Abdominal and pelvic calcifications are usually incidental findings and require further measures to determine their origin. Most laboratory investigations are of little help. Plain anteroposterior and lateral x-rays are essential. The time of appearance and localisation of a calcification is of diagnostic importance. Amorphous, granular and irregular calcification can be an early sign of malignancy. Mobility of a calcification also helps to clarify its origin. Over the past 15 years abdominal and pelvic calcifications, excluding urological radiodensities, have been found in 63 patients up to fourteen years of age at our institute. A migrating deposit in the omentum, a spontaneously amputated calcified ovary mimicking a vesical calculus and a congenital retroperitoneal xanthofibroma caused the greatest difficulty in establishing a preoperative diagnosis.