Bench to bedside: Lessons from the genetic hypercalciuric stone-forming rat

Abstract

Nephrolithiasis is often considered to be a difficult disease to treat. 1 Bushinsky DA Nephrolithiasis. J Am Soc Nephrol. 1998; 9: 917-924 PubMed Google Scholar The physician is attempting to alter urine composition over a period of months to years to prevent a single, very painful, event; success is measured by an event that does not happen. The study of stone formation in humans is fraught with difficulty. Not only would studies have to be of long duration, but investigators have little control of patients’ environment, diet, or fluid intake, factors that appear to be important in the development of nephrolithiasis.