Primary Hypoparathyroidism Presenting as Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension in a Patient With Barakat Syndrome

Unlike hyperparathyroidism, hypoparathyroidism is rarely encountered in clinical practice. Usually, it results from surgical resection, an autoimmune phenomenon, or an infiltrative process. Under certain circumstances, one may encounter a genetic etiology of hypoparathyroidism, often combined with myriad other syndromic manifestations. We report a case of a young female with congenital deafness and subacute visual loss. Hypocalcemia and primary hypoparathyroidism were subsequently discovered, and the cause of the vision loss was diagnosed as idiopathic intracranial hypertension, likely secondary to severe primary hypoparathyroidism. The patient was also found to have small bilateral kidneys, with tubular loss of magnesium and calcium, yet with a normal glomerular filtration rate. The constellation of congenital deafness, hypoparathyroidism, and renal dysfunction suggests Barakat syndrome, one of the less common causes of syndromic primary hypoparathyroidism.