Abstract
Calcium oxalate urolithiasis is a common and painful condition in people. The pathogenesis of this disease is complex and poorly understood. Laboratory animal and in vitro studies have demonstrated an effect of multiple trace metals in the crystallization process, and studies in humans have reported relationships between urinary metal concentrations and stone risk. Dogs are a spontaneous model of calcium oxalate urolithiasis, and the metal content of canine calcium oxalate stones mirrors that of human stones. The aim of this study was to test for a relationship between urinary metals and calcium oxalate urolithiasis in dogs. We hypothesized that urinary metals would differ between dogs with and without calcium oxalate urolithiasis. Urine from 122 dogs (71 cases and 51 stone-free controls) was analyzed for calcium and 12 other metals. The cases had higher urinary calcium, copper, iron, and vanadium and lower urinary cobalt. Higher urinary vanadium in the cases was associated with being fed a therapeutic stone-prevention diet. Urinary calcium had a strong positive correlation with strontium and moderate positive correlations with chromium, nickel, and zinc. The results of this study complement the findings of similar human studies and suggest a potential role of trace metals in calcium oxalate urolithiasis. Further investigation into how trace metals may affect stone formation is warranted.
Highlights
Urolithiasis is a significant health problem, with a lifetime incidence of 12% in men and 6% in women [1, 2]
75% of kidney stones are composed of calcium oxalate (CaOx) [5,6], and idiopathic hypercalciuria is the most common metabolic abnormality in stone patients [7]
The remaining 14 cases had a history of prior CaOx urolithiasis
Summary
Urolithiasis is a significant health problem, with a lifetime incidence of 12% in men and 6% in women [1, 2]. Preventative treatments such as increasing water intake and thiazide diuretics can significantly reduce risk [3], but the overall stone recurrence rate is high at 50% by 5 years [4]. While most laboratory animals seem relatively resistant to forming CaOx stones, dogs develop them naturally.
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