association between renal stone, bone mineral density and biochemical parameters

background: to investigate the relationship between renal stone formation and osteoporosis. methods: eight hundred thirty healthy subjects aged between 20 and 76 years were randomly selected from 50 clusters to take part in the study. of these, 68 (8.2%) had a previous history of renal stone disease. all participants underwent clinical exami nation and bone mineral densitometry of the lumbar spine and femur using the dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry tech nique. plasma levels of vitamin d3, calcium, phosphate, alkaline phosphatase, and parathyroid hormone were also meas ured. results: data showed that patients with a history of renal stones had a higher prevalence of osteoporosis (16.7%) and os teopenia (53.3%) than the subjects without a history of renal stone disease (11.2% and 35.7%, respectively). for both men and women the mean age of patients with a history of renal stone disease was significantly lower than patients with no dis ease history (men: with history 44.27+/-14.8, without history 50.28+/-12.3; p= 0.02) (women: with history 43.21+/-11.8, with out history 49.06+/-9.6; p= 0.02). female patients with a history of renal stone disease also had a significantly lower (8.74%) mean spinal bone density (p= 0.02), but there were no other significant differences in either the biochemical parame ters that were measured or in the hip bone density. conclusions: these data suggest that osteoporosis may be more prevalent in those patients that have had a history of renal stone formation.