Objective: To describe the case of a child with paracoccidioidomycosis who presented hypercalcemia with multiple osteolytic lesions.
Description: A 6-year-old boy was admitted with a one-month history of fever and hepatosplenomegaly. On admission, he looked sick, pale, and had disseminated lymphadenopathy and hepatosplenomegaly. The laboratory findings included anemia (hemoglobin = 6.8 g/dl), eosinophilia (1,222/mm3), thrombocytopenia (102,000/mm3), and hypoalbuminemia (serum albumin = 2.2 g/dl). Paracoccidioides brasiliensis was identified in bone marrow examination. In the second week after admission, the patient presented joint pain, poor activity and difficulty in walking. He presented hypercalcemia (maximum value = 14.9 mg%) and reduction in renal function, which lasted for two weeks. On the 42nd day after admission, his chest X-ray showed lytic lesions in clavicle, scapula, ribs, and humerus, with bilateral slipped capital humeral epiphysis. The patient presented nephrocalcinosis and nephrolithiasis, reduction in creatinine clearance and evidence of tubular lesions. At the end of the second month after admission, Mycobacterium tuberculosis was isolated in gastric washing. The child received treatment for paracoccidioidomycosis and tuberculosis and has not had any sequelae for 3 years.
Comments: The development of symptomatic hypercalcemia leading to renal lesion, associated with multiple osteolytic lesions, had never been described in paracoccidioidomycosis. Although pulmonary tuberculosis was diagnosed and could be related to hypercalcemia, the sudden onset of hypercalcemia and its normalization without specific treatment for tuberculosis suggests that bone lysis was the most important factor in the genesis of hypercalcemia.