Crystalluria in lithiasic children who attended to the Institute for Research in health Sciences in the period 2011-2013

Abstract

Introduction: Crystalluria is considered a marker of urine supersaturation, its nature and characteristics are of clinical interest for monitoring diseases such as urolithiasis. Objetive: To determine the frequency of positive crystalluria and crystals types most frequently observed in urine of children with kidney stones who attended the Clinical Laboratory of the Instituto de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Salud during 2011-2013. Materials and Methods: The results of crystalluria analysis following the protocol described by Daudon et al. of all the children were evaluated. Personal data obtained were kept strictly confidential. Results: In the three years were referred 213 minors diagnosed with urolithiasis, 44 (21%) of them referred to follow nutritional regimen for lithiasis and 52 (24.4%) patients were receiving pharmacological treatment. Crystals were found in 10% of all samples analyzed and the most frecquent crystal founded was dihydrated calcium oxalate. It was not observed rare crystals associated with genetic or drug-induced diseases. Of the children included in this study only 60 (28%) had several crystallurias for follow up, while the remaining 72% (n = 153) only had the basal crystalluria. Conclusions: Because nephrolithiasis is a disease with high risk of recurrence, crystalluria can be considered to be a simple and cheap method that can be a useful tool for monitoring patients with kidney stones in order to apply specific therapeutic measures.