New research suggests people who develop kidney stones may have an increased risk of experiencing bone fractures.
The findings could indicate which patients require preventative efforts to protect them against fractures, the American Society of Nephrology reported. The findings indicate individuals who form stones in the kidneys and urinary tract may have a reduced mineral density in the bones.
To make their findings the researchers analyzed the health records of 51,785 people from the U.K. who were diagnosed with stones in the urinary tract (urolithiaisis) and 517,267 who did not suffer from the condition.
The researchers observed a significant link between urolithiaisis and likelihood of bone fractures. Men who were diagnosed with the condition showed, on average, a 10 percent increased risk of fractures; the greatest risk was seen in adolescence (55 percent higher). Women's risk ranged from 17 percent to 52 percent, with the greatest risk occurring from the third to seventh decade of life (the highest risk was between the ages of 30 and 39).
"The significantly higher risk at certain ages in males and females has profound public health implications," said, Michelle Denburg of The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. "Given that the median time from diagnosis of urolithiasis to fracture was a decade, we might be able to intervene during this interval to reduce the burden of future fracture."
The findings will be published in the article "Risk of Fracture in Urolithiasis: A Population-Based Cohort Study using The Health Improvement Network" in the upcoming edition of the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (CJASN). Study co-authors include Mary Leonard, MD, MSCE, Kevin Haynes, PharmD, MSCE, Shamir Tuchman, MD, MPH, Gregory Tasian, MD, MSc, Justine Shults, PhD, and Lawrence Copelovitch, MD.
