The Patient with “Extraskeletal Mineralisation”

Abstract

Calcification in soft tissues is caused by deposition of calcium compounds in radiologically detectable quantities. Joints close to soft tissue, fasciae or muscles are affected according to the underlying disease or trauma. This degenerative process is also called calcification and calcinosis. With migration of fibroblasts and other connective tissue cells into the mineral deposits, an increasing conversion of inorganic calcium compounds to organic bone tissue may occur, together with connective tissue proliferation and mineralisation of the newly produced bone matrix. It is then called an ossification.