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If you know of any of these conditions, ask a doctor about getting tested for calcifications. If you’re under 65 years old and were born with a heart defect or kidney-related issues, calcifications can be more common for you than for others your age. If you’re over 65 years old, see a doctor regularly for blood tests to evaluate your calcium levels along with other tests. If the pain doesn’t go away, your doctor may recommend surgery. Treatments may include taking anti-inflammatory medicines and applying ice packs. This diuretic signals the kidneys to release urine while holding on to more calcium.Ĭalcium deposits in your joints and tendons don’t always cause painful symptoms, but they can affect your range of motion and cause discomfort. Your doctor may prescribe a diuretic called thiazide to help prevent future calcium kidney stones. Kidney stone treatments help break down calcium buildup in the kidneys. In this case, you may need surgery to open or replace the valve if the calcium buildup is severe enough to affect the valve’s function. Heart valves can also develop calcifications. Minor artery calcifications aren’t considered dangerous. Your doctor will require regular follow-up appointments to check for potential complications once calcifications have been found. The earlier breast changes of concern are discovered, the more likely you will have a positive outcome.Ĭalcification treatment depends on several factors: Getting regular mammograms at an appropriate age can help track breast calcifications if they’re present. And your doctor may suggest minor surgery to remove calcifications to look at them more closely. Your doctor may also take a biopsy to test calcifications that might be suspicious-looking. Your doctor may ask you to schedule a follow-up appointment if any calcifications need to be checked again. Your doctor usually spots these deposits during a mammogram of your breast tissue. Microcalcifications are often not cancerous, but some microcalcification patterns may be signs of early breast cancer.īreast calcifications are too small to be found during a regular breast exam. This is especially true for macrocalcifications. Most breast calcifications aren’t cancerous. You might also get calcifications if you’ve had breast cancer or radiation therapy for cancer. Breast injuries, cell secretions, infections, and inflammation can cause breast calcifications. Men can get breast calcifications, too, but it’s not as common.īreast calcifications happen for several reasons. There are two main types of breast calcifications: macrocalcifications (large calcium buildups) and microcalcifications (small calcium buildups).Īccording to the National Cancer Institute, macrocalcifications in the breasts are most common in women over 50 years old. 30, 273–301 (1976).Breast calcifications occur when calcium builds up within the soft tissue of the breast. & Sato, H.) 59–85 (University of Tokyo Press, 1979).īurridge, K. in Cell Motility: Molecules and Organization (eds Hatano, S., Ishikawa, H. & Rosenbaum, J.) 361–388 (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York, 1976).įeramisco, J. in Cell Motility (eds Goldman, R., Pollard, T. We conclude that in this molecular weight range there are at least two classes of non-muscle actin-binding protein: one corresponding to non-muscle α-actinins and the other to proteins such as gelsolin and villin. In many properties it closely resembles actinogelin, Dictyostelium 95K protein and Acanthamoeba 85K protein, but it appears distinct from proteins such as gelsolin and villin which, in the presence of calcium, fragment actin filaments into short oligomers 3,5.
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Here we report that α-actinin purified from HeLa cells is inhibited from cross-linking actin filaments by micromolar free calcium. The actin-binding protein α-actinin has received little attention in this analysis, even though it has a subunit molecular weight in this range ( ∼100,000) and has been shown immunologically to exist in non-muscle cells 12,13. These proteins have been given various names, including gelsolin 1–3, villin 4,5, actinogelin 6,7, Dictyostelium 95K protein 8,9, platelet 95K protein 10 and Acanthamoeba 85K protein 11. Many actin-binding proteins have been purified from different cell types, and a number of them share certain features: they are affected by calcium in their interaction with actin and have similar subunit molecular weights ( ∼100,000) on SDS-poly-acrylamide gels.
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