Metabolic Disorders and Renal Stone

Introduction Research into the aetiology of calculus disease has failed to reveal the fundamental cause of stone formation, but it is apparent that various factors predispose to their development. Renal calculi are likely to occur in most diseases in which there is an increased urinary excretion of crystalloid stone-forming substances. Calcium phosphate and oxalate stones are particularly liable to arise in disorders leading to hypercalcuria such as hyperparathyroidism, cystine calculi seem only to occur in those patients with cystinuria who excrete large amounts of this amino-acid, and there is some evidence that diseases causing a raised excretion of uric acid predispose to uric acid stones. In this short review an attempt will be made to present the main diagnostic features of some of these diseases, particularly those in which patients may first seek advice because of symptoms of stone in the upper urinary tract.