Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2012 May;32(3):177-83.
doi: 10.3343/alm.2012.32.3.177. Epub 2012 Apr 18.

Changes in urinary stone composition in the Tunisian population: a retrospective study of 1,301 cases

Akram Alaya  1 , Abdellatif Nouri, Mohsen Belgith, Hammadi Saad, Riadh Jouini, Mohamed Fadhel Najjar
Affiliations

Changes in urinary stone composition in the Tunisian population: a retrospective study of 1,301 cases

Akram Alaya et al. Ann Lab Med. 2012 May.

Abstract

Background: Studies that evaluate the effect of age on stone composition are scarce. The aim of this study was to highlight the changes in epidemiological characteristics (stone composition and location) of urolithiasis according to patients' age.

Methods: We studied 1,301 urolithiasis patients with age ranging from 6 months to 92 yr (781 males and 520 females). Stone analysis was performed using a stereomicroscope and infrared spectroscopy to determine the morphological type and molecular composition of each stone.

Results: The annual average incidence of new stone formation was 31.7 per 100,000 persons. In 71.8% of cases, calculi were located in the upper urinary tract. Compared to other age groups, children and old men were more affected by bladder stones. Calcium oxalate monohydrate was the most frequent stone component, even though its frequency decreased with age (59.5% in young adults and 43.7% in the elderly, P<0.05) in favor of an increase in uric acid stones (11.5% in young adults and 36.4% in the elderly, P<0.05). Struvite stones were rare (3.8%) and more frequent in children than in adults.

Conclusions: The analysis of these data showed that urinary stones in Tunisian patients are tending to evolve in the same direction as the stones in patients from industrialized countries.

Keywords: Adult; Children; Elderly; Kidney; Spectrophotometry; Uric acid; Urinary stone.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

No potential conflict of interest relevant to this article was reported.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Changes in the annual incidence of urolithiasis throughout the study period.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Changes in stone location according to age (N=1,301).
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Differences in kidney and bladder stone composition.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Trinchieri A. Epidemiology of urolithiasis. Arch Ital Urol Androl. 1996;68:203–249. - PubMed
    1. Ramello A, Vitale C, Marangella M. Epidemiology of nephrolithiasis. J Nephrol. 2000;13(Suppl 3):S45–S50. - PubMed
    1. Robertson WG, Hughes H. Epidemiology of urinary stone disease in Saudi Arabia. In: Ryall R, Bais R, et al., editors. Urolithiasis 2. New York London: Plenum Press; 1994. pp. 453–455.
    1. El-Reshaid K, Mughal H, Kapoor M. Epidemiological profile, mineral metabolic pattern and crystallographic analysis of urolithiasis in Kuwait. Eur J Epidemiol. 1997;13:229–234. - PubMed
    1. Costa-Bauzá A, Ramis M, Montesinos V, Grases F, Conte A, Pizá P, et al. Type of renal calculi: variation with age and sex. World J Urol. 2007;25:415–421. - PubMed

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources