Pathophysiology of idiopathic hypercalciuria: the current concept

During past decades it became fashionable to address individual facets of idiopathic hypercalciuria selectively and independently in the laboratory, thus preparing for the almost impossible conciliation of these fragments in the future. In this review a unifying concept is presented, which places excessive meat protein intake at the centre of the scheme and links it to other facets of the phenotype of the disease, such as the genetic component of bone demineralization, fasting hypercalciuria and excessive production of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D, as well as of various cytokines.