Video Article: How Stones Form

Video Article: How Stones Form

With considerable trepidation, I unfurl my first and certainly very unpolished video offering. The good part of the articles on this site is their devotion to scientific accuracy and referencing from PubMed. The bad parts are their opacity, length, and difficulty. I have long been a public lecturer and decided that video offerings might be a valuable add on. There is more room, I think I speak better than I write, and it seems to me one video can summarize and complement a group of written articles, so I did this one. It covers crystal formation, how crystals are made, and where in the niches and crevasses of the kidney they actually form. Its message is my usual one: Prevent crystals and you prevent stone disease. This is a beta version. I know it has some errors in it. I also know it lacks refinements I need. But, refinements and corrections will come. Let me know.

IDIOPATHIC CALCIUM OXALATE STONE FORMERS (ICSF)

IDIOPATHIC CALCIUM OXALATE STONE FORMERS (ICSF)

Here is the most common kind of stone former, described in such detail as one can muster up at this time. They are simple to diagnose: Stones containing a preponderance of calcium oxalate, no uric acid, struvite, cystine, brushite, drugs, or rare organic materials, and exclusion of any systemic disease as a cause of stones. More or less, these patients are stone disease as it is seen in primary care and most urology practices. Of the millions of stone formers most are like this. The trials for prevention of calcium stones have mainly used these patients as a majority of subjects. However common they may be, and easy to define, they are complex in the way that they make stones, and it appears that there may be not one but perhaps two kinds of idiopathic calcium oxalate stone former. Because of modern flexible ureteroscopy the types of idiopathic calcium oxalate stone former will soon be told apart during stone removal surgery, and patients and their physicians confronted with a variety they may not fully expect. This article sums up what is known, as best as I can manage.

PATTERNS OF TISSUE MINERALIZATION

PATTERNS OF TISSUE MINERALIZATION

Three Pathways for Kidney Stone Formation All kidney stones share similar presenting symptoms, and urine supersaturation with respect to the mineral phase of the stone is essential for stone formation. These clinical similarities have made it difficult for researchers...

CASE 2: A Calcium Oxalate Stone Former

CLINICAL FINDINGS A man in his fifties formed his first stone in the early 2000’s and his last 6 months ago. There was a single passage event a year or two after the first stone at which time he was given hydrochlorothiazide 25 mg daily. A right SWL procedure...
IMCD and BD plugs: Do they have a role in stone formation?

IMCD and BD plugs: Do they have a role in stone formation?

Between stone attacks, one can forget about the importance of prevention. So much water, pills, and nothing happens. This new post shows very new research done over the past decade or so, mainly by us, which shows that the tiny tubules of the kidneys can become plugged with calcium phosphate crystals. Fortunately kidney function appears to remain intact, but there is cell injury and inflammation. No one knows right now if stone prevention treatments will also prevent these plugs, but since the plugs form at the very ends of the renal tubules, where the final urine exits into the renal pelvis, one would think that whatever reduces crystal formation in the urine will reduce plugging.

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