title: Physiologic pineal region, choroid plexus, and dural calcifications in the first decade of life.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Calcifications of the pineal, habenula, choroid plexus, and dura are often physiologic. In the modern CT era with thin-section images and multiplanar reformats, intracranial calcifications have become more conspicuous. We aimed to discover the CT prevalence of pineal region, choroid plexus, and dural calcifications in the first decade of life.
  
  
  METHODS
  Five hundred head CTs from different patients (age range, 0-9 years) encountered during a consecutive 6-month period at a single academic children's hospital were reviewed retrospectively after excluding examinations with artifacts and pineal region masses/hemorrhage. All studies were performed on a 320-detector CT, with 0.5-mm collimation and a 512 × 512 matrix. Five-millimeter reformatted axial, sagittal, and coronal images were analyzed for location and extent of intracranial calcifications.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mean age was 3.5 ± 5.7 years (range, 0-9 years). There were 285 males (57%) and 215 females (43%). Pineal calcifications were present in 5% (n = 25; age range, 3.2-8.9 years; median, 7 years). Habenular calcifications were found in 10% (n = 50; age range, 2.8-8.8 years; median, 7 years). Twelve percent (n = 58) had choroid plexus calcifications, (age range, 0.1-8.8 years). Dural calcifications were rare, present in 1% (n = 6; age range, 2.9-8.7 years).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Physiologic intracranial calcifications may be found in the first decade, principally in children older than 5 years. Most epithalamic calcifications are habenular. Pineal and habenular calcifications were never present in children younger than 3 and 2 years, respectively. Choroid plexus calcifications may be present in the very young. Dural calcifications are rare.
authors.affiliation: From the Departments of Radiology (M.T.W., C.O., A.R., A.F.C.) Department of Radiology (M.T.W., A.R., A.F.C.), Le Bonheur Children's Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee Department of Radiology (M.T.W.), Children's National Medical Center, Washington, DC.
authors.forename: M T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Whitehead
authors.affiliation: From the Departments of Radiology (M.T.W., C.O., A.R., A.F.C.).
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Oh
authors.affiliation: From the Departments of Radiology (M.T.W., C.O., A.R., A.F.C.) Department of Radiology (M.T.W., A.R., A.F.C.), Le Bonheur Children's Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Raju
authors.affiliation: From the Departments of Radiology (M.T.W., C.O., A.R., A.F.C.) Neurosurgery (A.F.C.), University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, Tennessee Department of Radiology (M.T.W., A.R., A.F.C.), Le Bonheur Children's Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee achoudhri@uthsc.edu.
authors.forename: A F
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3154-6319
authors.initials: AF
authors.lastname: Choudhri
mesh_terms: D001927:Brain Diseases / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D002113:Calcification, Physiologic; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002831:Choroid Plexus / Q000502:physiology*; D004388:Dura Mater / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006257:Head / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010870:Pineal Gland / Q000502:physiology*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed