am i fucked (will a CT scan show calcification in my basal ganglia)
133
10kṀ98k
Oct 21
23%
chance

Whole genome sequencing showed i have a mutation: p.Ala99Thr (a99t) in SLC20A2. Mutations in SLC20A2 lead to Fahr's disease, where you become literally a bonehead (calcium deposits in brain) and get parkinsons and get retarded, with symptoms usually starting in 30's and 40's (but very high variance in age of onset).

Not all mutations in this gene are pathologic. My specific mutation is extremely rare and unstudied, we don't know for sure if mine is pathologic. I have a single-point variant, of which 38% are pathologic (according to LOVD).

If I DON'T have pathologic variant, then shoggoths say I have a <1% of showing calcification on CT scan. If I DO have it, supposedly I have ~70% chance of calcification at my current age.

However, the location of my mutation (99) is right at the border of where mutations tend to start getting more pathologic. The most nearby recorded mutations (97, 96, 111) are 2/3 pathologic. Prediction programs (CADD, SIFT, PolyPhen, PROVEAN, etc) strongly predict that it will be pathologic.

I had a scan of my brain done (edit: fMRI) when I was in my early 20's and there was nothing abnormal. I'm currently 33yo.


This is heritable, so this would suggest I should see some of it in my family, if I have it? I don't think I've seen it, and afaik nobody's gotten ct scans of their brain before. I know of no reports of abnormal 'what's happening with this person' issues, but one side of my family has a rare genetic disorder (Loeys Deitz, which I don't have) which leads to a whole host of health issues, and it's possible if that side of the family also has fahr's disease, those symptoms were masked by the other issues, and also a tendency to die early. My mom is exhibiting dementia-like symptoms now (66yo), but so far stuff downstream of loeys-deitz (her surgeries and medications) have seemed like a more-than-adequate explanation for her cognitive symptoms.

I kinda feel like my memory and cognition has gotten worse over the last ~5 years, and have complained about this to people, but people have often said "yeah my brain also gets worse as i age" so ???

I'm scheduling a CT scan now, but will be a bit before I get it.

My question is: Will the radiologist say something like "You seem to have signs of calcification in your basal ganglia"?
(I think basal ganglia is the key area here, but if I gain more info later that is like "actually this other area is real relevant to your mutation too" then i'll count that as a 'yes' condition too)

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