抄録
We observed mineralized blood vessels in the capsules of human pineal glands containing abundant fibrous calcareous concretions in the capsules as well as non-fibrous calcareous concretions (brain sands) in the gland matrix. The capsular blood vessels were sometimes scattered with mineralized, round deposits of various sizes containing minute spherical deposits (MSD). The MSD showed hypermineralization similar to that in capsular fibrous concretions reported in our recent study and some MSD resembled those consistent with Fahr's disease. Occasionally, the vessel lumens were completely embedded with mineralized deposits. As the characteristic means of detection from the mineralized blood vessels, the volume of Na was significantly higher than that of the matrix non-fibrous concretions. The origin of Na in the mineralized blood vessels containing MSD was likely derived from the connective tissue fluid. Our findings suggested that a human pineal gland matrix containing numerous non-fibrous concretions is likely to associate with mineralized deposits within the blood vessels as well as fibrous concretions in the capsule.
