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Stone composition and vascular calcifications in patients with nephrolithiasis

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Abstract

Kidney stone disease is associated with cardiovascular outcomes; it is unclear whether stone composition is associated with differential cardiovascular risk. To analyze such association, we performed a cross-sectional study in which data were collected for patients who underwent at least one stone composition analysis from January 01 2015 to May 30 2018. The original dataset was linked with the imaging database to identify those patients with at least one abdominal CT scan examination during the period of interest. In total, 180 patients were included. The outcome of interest was the presence of any abdominal aortic calcifications (AAC) computed from CT scans. There were 108 (60.0%) patients with AAC. Calcium phosphate content was associated directly with eGFR, inversely with age, and was higher among females. Uric acid content was associated directly with age and inversely with eGFR, was higher among males, patients with diabetes and high blood pressure. After adjustment for age and gender, there was a significant association between calcium phosphate content and AAC (OR 1.25, 95% CI 1.00, 1.56, p = 0.045). No interaction by gender was found between calcium phosphate content and AAC (p = 0.84). In conclusion, we demonstrated a significant direct association of AAC and the amount of calcium phosphate was found, suggesting an increased cardiovascular risk. Our study suggests that some subtypes of kidney stone disease deserve a closer cardiovascular risk assessment.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Dr. Matteo Montesi and Dr. Antonio Marchetti (U.O.C. Gestione sistemi informativi, Fondazione Policlinico Universitario A. Gemelli IRCCS) for their invaluable technical support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. U.O.C. Nefrologia, Fondazione Policlinico Universitario A. Gemelli IRCCS, Rome, Italy

    Pietro Manuel Ferraro & Matteo Bargagli

  2. U.O.C. Radiologia, Fondazione Policlinico Universitario A. Gemelli IRCCS, Rome, Italy

    Riccardo Marano & Giuseppe Rovere

  3. U.O.C. Chimica, Biochimica e Biologia Molecolare, Fondazione Policlinico Universitario A. Gemelli IRCCS, Rome, Italy

    Aniello Primiano & Jacopo Gervasoni

  4. U.O.C. Clinica Urologica, Fondazione Policlinico Universitario A. Gemelli IRCCS, Rome, Italy

    Pier Francesco Bassi

  5. Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Rome, Italy

    Pietro Manuel Ferraro, Riccardo Marano, Aniello Primiano, Jacopo Gervasoni, Matteo Bargagli, Giuseppe Rovere & Pier Francesco Bassi

  6. Renal Unit, Division of Nephrology and Dialysis, Department of Medicine, University of Verona, Verona, Italy

    Giovanni Gambaro

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  1. Pietro Manuel Ferraro
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Correspondence to Pietro Manuel Ferraro.

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Ethical approval

All procedures performed were in accordance and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards and ethical approval was obtained from the ethic committee of Fondazione Policlinico Unversitario A. Gemelli IRCCS (study ID 2304).

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Since the original study database is anonymized, informed consent was waived from the ethic committee.

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Ferraro, P.M., Marano, R., Primiano, A. et al. Stone composition and vascular calcifications in patients with nephrolithiasis. J Nephrol 32, 589–594 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40620-019-00619-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40620-019-00619-w

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