Mechanism for calcium urolithiasis among patients with hyperuricosuria: supersaturation of urine with respect to monosodium urate

Abstract

Since monosodium urate (NaU) may play an important etiologic role in the formation of renal stones containing Ca in patients with hyperuricosuria, the current studies were undertaken to define some of the physiocochemical factors which determine the formation of NaU. In solutions containing Na, uric acid was rapidly transformed to NaU at pH greater than 6. The results indicated that NaU, and not uric acid, was the stable phase above this pH. A reliable and simple method for the calculation of the state of saturation of urine with respect to NaU was developed from the ratio of concentration products of Na and total dissolved urate (Upi) in the ambient fluid before and after incubation of urine with synthetic NaU. The concentration product ratio closely approximated the ratio of activity products of Na+ and acid urate ion. In contrast, the relative saturation ratio, or the ratio of activity product of original sample and the thermodynamic solubility product of NaU, often differed from the activity product ratio in the individual urine samples. With the concentration product rate, it was found in 45 urine samples that a critical determinant for the supersaturated state with respect to NaU was the high concentration of UT. At UT greater than 300 mg/liter, urine samples were invariably supersaturated with respect to NaU. These results suggest that the nidus of NaU could potentially form in the urine of patients with hyperuricosuria and Ca stones.