Dilated Cardiomyopathy in a 2 Month-Old Infant: A Severe Form of Hypocalcemia With Vitamin D Deficient Rickets

Abstract

Dilated cardiomyopathy, which mostly has an idiopathic etiology or is caused by genetic inheritance or infection, can cause irreversible congestive heart failure. Hypocalcemia is a rare etiology of reversible dilated cardiomyopathy. Here we report the case of a two-month-old girl with congestive heart failure who was diagnosed as having dilated cardiomyopathy secondary to hypocalcemia. After calcium and vitamin D replacement therapy, the patient showed a rapid reduction in hypocalcemic tetany and a rapid recovery of left ventricular function. The cause of the hypocalcemia was vitamin D deficient rickets. She was exclusively breast-fed as an infant, and her mother had a vitamin D deficiency and was diagnosed with osteomalacia.