Hypocalcemia
Hypocalcemia is defined as a total serum calcium of less than 7 mg/dl. Clinically, it manifests in infants as:
– irritability
– tremors
– twitching and seizures
– lethargic
– poor suck
– and vomiting
Among the older children, hypocalcemia may present as:
– muscle twitching
– paresthesia
– tetanus and seizures
The different causes of hypocalcemia in the neonatal age group are:
– prematurity
– stress
– maternal diabetes
– high phosphate load
– and magnesium deficiency
In the older children, hypocalcemia may be due to:
– hypoparathyroidism
– pseudohypoparathyroidism
– deficiency of or defect in vitamin D metabolism