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. 2025 Mar 17;110(4):e1211-e1219.
doi: 10.1210/clinem/dgae295.

Metabolic Syndrome and the Risk of Kidney Stones: Evidence from 487 860 UK Biobank Participants

Minghui Liu  1   2 , Meng Gao  1   2 , Jian Wu  1   2 , Zewu Zhu  1   2   3 , Jiao Hu  1   2 , Hequn Chen  1   2 , Zhiyong Chen  1   2 , Jinbo Chen  1   2
Affiliations

Metabolic Syndrome and the Risk of Kidney Stones: Evidence from 487 860 UK Biobank Participants

Minghui Liu et al. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. .

Abstract

Context: While some studies have suggested an association between metabolic syndrome and kidney stones, the quality and level of evidence in these studies vary.

Objective: Whether some individual characteristics and clustering of metabolic syndrome traits increase the risk of kidney stones has not been examined in a large-scale prospective cohort.

Materials: We conducted a retrospective analysis of data from a prospective cohort of 487 860 UK Biobank participants who were free from kidney stones at baseline. The presence of metabolic syndrome was based on 5 criteria: abdominal obesity, high triglyceride levels, low high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol levels, high blood pressure (HBP), and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to evaluate the association between metabolic syndrome and risk of kidney stones.

Results: After an average follow-up period of 12.6 years, a total of 5213 of the 487 860 participants included in the UK Biobank study developed kidney stones. The partial traits of metabolic syndrome, including waist circumference (hazard ratio [HR]: 1.15; 95% CI, 1.10-1.20), HDL cholesterol (0.66; 95% CI, 0.55-0.79), HBP (1.11; 95% CI, 1.03-1.19), and T2DM (1.14; 95% CI, 1.04-1.21), were independently associated with the occurrence of kidney stones. The clustering of metabolic syndrome is significantly associated with kidney stone formation, and as the number of metabolic syndrome traits increases, the risk of kidney stones gradually increases.

Conclusion: Metabolic syndrome is a significant and independent risk factor for the development of kidney stones. This association suggests that kidney stones may represent a systemic disorder influenced by the interplay of various metabolic risk factors.

Keywords: UK Biobank; high blood pressure; high-density lipoprotein cholesterol; kidney stones; metabolic syndrome; obesity; type 2 diabetes mellitus.

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