Incidence of urolithiasis in northeast Thailand

Urolithiasis is a major health problem in the northeast part of Thailand. In this study, we examined the prevalence of renal stone disease and differences of urinary components between stone formers and healthy control subjects in northeastern rural areas of Thailand.

We selected 3 villages in the rural areas of Khon Kaen province in northeast Thailand. Three hundred and sixty-seven persons were asked questions relating to urolithiasis and were examined by abdominal ultrasound (US). We collected a spot urine sample from stone formers and healthy control subjects from each village.

Abnormal findings by US were detected in 39 individuals (10.6%), and included 31 individuals with renal calculi (8.4%), 16 with hydronephrosis (4.4%), and 1 individual with a renal cyst (0.3%). This yielded a disease rate of urinary stones in this study of 16.9%. The male/female ratio was 2/1 and the average age of the individuals examined was 40.3 +/- 13.9 years. However, there was no significant difference between the urinary parameters of stone formers and the healthy control subjects.

There was a high incidence of renal stone disease in the northeast part of Thailand, but the tendency for hypocitraturia was only found in stone formers.