Relationships between calcium and oxalic acid intake in the diet and their excretion in the urine of normal and renal-stone-forming subjects.

1. The short-term effects of different intakes of calcium and oxalic acid on the urinary excretion of these substances was studied in eight normal men and eight men with a history of calcium-containing renal stones. 2. The effect of dietary oxalate on urine oxalate depended partly upon the calcium intake. Thus, on a normal calcium intake an increase in oxalate intake caused an increase in oxalate excretion that corresponded to 3.6% of the additional dietary oxalate; on a low calcium diet, however, the increase corresponded to 8.1%. 3. A decrease in daily calcium intake from lo00 to 250 mg caused a fall in calcium excretion averaging 150 mg/day in the patients and 60 mg/day in the controls but this was accompanied by average rises of 10 and 7 mg/day respectively in oxalate excretion, with the result that the calcium oxalate activity products remained almost unchanged. 4. A decrease in oxalate as well as calcium intake resulted in a fall in calcium excretion that was not accompanied by a rise in oxalate excretion, and there was a statistically significant fall in the calcium oxalate activity product in both the patients and normal subjects.