Perspectives in the assessment and management of patients with primary hyperoxaluria type I

In normal adults the urinary excretion of oxalate rarely exceeds 0.5 mmol/24 hours-1 despite dietary and seasonal fluctuations of intake and absorption. Hyperoxaluria may be encountered in a number of disease states because of increased absorption of dietary oxalate or derangements of metabolism (Table 1). More unusually, hyperoxaluria may arise from one of three inborn errors of metabolism, i.e., the primary hyperoxalurias. The most common, primary hyperoxaluria type I (PHI), is recessively inherited; it will be discussed in detail in this paper. Primary hyperoxaluria type II, caused by a deficiency of D-glycerate dehydrogenase (EC 1.1.1.29), has a similar clinical pattern of disease, but has been described in only a very few families. More recently, another idiopathic form of hyperoxaluria has been defined (type III). It is likely that this form results from a primary defect in oxalate absorption in the absence of any morphologically or functionally definable intestinal disease; a satisfactory response to dietary restriction of oxalate, along with the use of thiazide diuretics, has been described.