Case Presentation
A 43-year-old female presented with altered mental status (GCS of 10/15) and abnormal twitching of hand. Reported to have a long-standing history of constipation and had been on laxatives. POC electrolytes showed Sodium: 110 mmol/L, Potassium: 3.5 mmol/L and Calcium: 0.71 mmol/L. The case managed as symptomatic euvolemic hyponatremia, hypocalcemia, and SIADHS.
Symptoms of hypocalcemia
Numbness and/or tingling of the hands, feet, or lips, muscle cramps, muscle spasms, seizures, facial twitching, muscle weakness, lightheadedness, and bradycardia.
Symptoms of hyponatremia
Nausea and vomiting, headache, confusion, loss of energy, drowsiness and fatigue, restlessness and irritability. muscle weakness, spasms or cramps, seizures, coma.
At the presentation time of the patient, you may not know these muscle spasms are because of hypocalcemia and hyponatremia’s similar symptoms. So, laboratory tests can clarify the diagnosis. However, in this case, both (Ca and Na) are low. So, you treat both.
In addition
There are two findings related to hypocalcemia which worth to mention. Chvostek’s sign is the twitching of the facial muscles in response to tapping over the area of the facial nerve. Trousseau’s sign is carpopedal spasm caused by inflating the blood pressure cuff to a level above systolic pressure for 3 minutes. This video shows both findings.
