title: Vitamin A toxicity and hypercalcemia.
abstract: A patient hospitalized with hypercalcemia and a history of chronic vitamin A ingestion was studied in order to investigate the rarely reported association between elevated serum calcium and vitamin A toxicity. The clinical presentation marked by profound weight loss, a psychiatric disturbance, total body alopecia, erosive dermatitis, and liver disease, was compatible with hypervitaminosis A. The diagnosis of vitamin A toxicity was established by elevated total vitamin A levels and the component due to retinyl esters. Other etiologies for hypercalcemia were excluded. In view of these results and the well-known effects of vitamin A on bone metabolism, it is concluded that the most likely etiology of the hypercalcemia in this patient was vitamin A toxicity.
mesh_terms: D000505:Alopecia / Q000139:chemically induced; D001835:Body Weight / Q000187:drug effects; D003875:Drug Eruptions / Q000209:etiology; D005260:Female; D006529:Hepatomegaly / Q000139:chemically induced; D006801:Humans; D006934:Hypercalcemia / Q000139:chemically induced*; D006986:Hypervitaminosis A; D007592:Joint Diseases / Q000139:chemically induced; D008875:Middle Aged; D009135:Muscular Diseases / Q000139:chemically induced; D010146:Pain / Q000139:chemically induced; D011605:Psychoses, Substance-Induced