Metabolic investigation of patients with urolithiasis in a specific region.
OBJECTIVE: To assess the prevalence of the main metabolic alterations found in patients with recent diagnosis of urolithiasis in the West region of Parana state, Brazil. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We made a retrospective study on 425 patients with evidence of recent formation of renal stones. Laboratory assessment consisted in 3 samples of 24-hour urine with dosing of calcium, uric acid, citrate, oxalate, sodium and creatinine. A urine culture was also made and qualitative cystinuria and urinary pH following 12-hour fasting and water restriction were evaluated. RESULTS: In 96.5% of patients a cause was detected for the urolithiasis. Metabolic alterations most frequently found were: hypercalciuria (38.3%), hypocitraturia (29.6%) and hyperexcretion of uric acid (21.6%). Low urinary volume (17.9%), urinary tract infection (12.9%), hyperparathyroidism (3.3%), renal tubular acidosis (1.2%), cystinuria (0.9%) and anatomical alterations (12.7%) were also observed. CONCLUSIONS: Hypercalciuria, hypocitraturia and hyperuricuria are the most frequent metabolic disorders in the population under study and these data are in accordance to the literature.