Composition of urinary tract stones formed by children in two populations in the Uyghur region of China

To retrospectively compare the composition of urinary tract stones formed by Uyghur children from the southern (Kashgar) and northern (Urumchi) parts of the Xinjiang region.

The chemical composition of urinary tract calculi formed by 855 Uyghur children from the two regions in Xinjiang (366 Kashgar and 489 Urumchi) was compared retrospectively. Stone composition was determined by infrared spectroscopy. Factors that might have been of relevance for the findings such as age, gender, stone location and geographic region were also considered.

Kashgar children were younger than Urumchi children (2.8 ± 2.7 vs. 4.3 ± 3.7 years, p < 0.001). Although ammonium urate was the dominant stone component in the whole population, calcium oxalate was most common in children from Urumchi. The mean occurrence of ammonium urate, calcium oxalate and uric acid differed significantly between stones formed by Kashgar and Urumchi children (52.5% vs. 29.2%, 18.9% vs. 29.4%, 12.3% vs. 20.9%; respectively, p < 0.001). Renal stones were less frequently recorded in Kashgar children than in Urumchi children (65.8% vs. 91.6%, p < 0.001). Interestingly, bladder stones were more common in children from Kashgar (28.4% vs. 3.7%; p < 0.001).

Uyghur children from the southern part of Xinjiang apparently had a more serious form of stone disease than children from the northern part and the occurrence of stones dominated by ammonium urate stones was extremely high in children from the southern part of the region.

Journal of the Chinese Medical Association : JCMA. 2018 Jul 12 [Epub ahead of print]

Jian Huang, Aierken Tuerxun, Hamulati Tusong, Abudukahaer Batuer, Hans-Göran Tiselius, Zhijian Zhao, Zanlin Mai, Guohua Zeng, Wenqi Wu

Department of Urology, Minimally Invasive Surgery Center, Guangzhou Institute of Urology, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Urology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China. Electronic address: ., Department of Urology, The First People's Hospital of Kashgar Erea, Kashgar, Xinjiang, China., Department of Urology, The First Teaching Hospital of Xinjiang Medical University, Urumchi, Xinjiang, China., Division of Urology, Department of Science, Intervention and Technology, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden., Department of Urology, Minimally Invasive Surgery Center, Guangzhou Institute of Urology, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Urology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China., Department of Urology, Minimally Invasive Surgery Center, Guangzhou Institute of Urology, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Urology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China. Electronic address: .