Characteristics of urinary stone composition among patients with urolithiasis: a retrospective study in China

To present the most recent data on urinary calculi characteristics in the southern region of China and explore the effects of sociodemographic, clinical and laboratory characteristics on stone composition to fill the research gap.

A retrospective observational study was performed in Shenzhen between December 2019 and August 2022.

A total of 858 calculi samples from patients with urolithiasis were analysed via infrared spectroscopy.

The stone was classified by the European Association of Urology guidelines and the Mayo Clinic stone classification practices. Multivariate logistic regression models were conducted to evaluate the association between different characteristics and urinary stone composition.

We found that the majority of these patients with urolithiasis were under 60. Almost half of the stone samples (49.4%) were single constitute, and calcium oxalate stone accounted for the highest proportion (80.0%), followed by infection stone (10.0%) and uric acid stone (4.9%). Of these, 78.0% were collected from males, with a male-to-female ratio of 3.54:1; the majority (95.0%) of calculi localisation was in the upper urinary tract. Multivariate analysis found that age, gender, history of urolithiasis, kidney disease, anatomical location and urinary pH influenced urinary stone composition.

The effective prevention of urolithiasis is the key to this working-age population. These findings may supply significant evidence for understanding the underlying aetiology of urolithiasis and offer clues for effectively preventing and treating urinary calculi.