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hypercalcemia
(hi″pәr-kal-se´me-ә)
excessive calcium in the blood; the primary symptom is that neuromuscular activity diminishes. Symptoms include lethargy, muscle weakness (which, as the level of calcium increases, can progress to
depressed reflexes and hypotonic muscles), constipation, mental confusion, and eventually coma. The heartbeat also slows, which potentiates the effects of digitalis. Called also calcemia.
idiopathic hypercalcemia
a condition of infants, associated with vitamin D intoxication, characterized by elevated serum calcium levels, increased
skeletal density, mental deterioration, and nephrocalcinosis.
hypercalcemia of malignancy
abnormal elevation of serum calcium associated with malignant tumors, resulting from osteolysis caused by bone metastases
or by the action of circulating osteoclast-activating factors released from distant tumor cells (known as humoral hypercalcemia of malignancy).

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