WEDNESDAY, March 5, 2003 (HealthDayNews) -- An American study that provides new information about the formation of kidney stones may change the direction of basic research in that area.
The researchers did confirm a longstanding hypothesis that kidney stones develop from calcium phosphate crystals in a centrally located area of the kidney called the papilla tip.
However, the new study refuted the current theory that cell injury is necessary before crystals can attach to kidney tissue and develop into kidney stones.
This new study also says the crystals are composed of calcium phosphate, which contradicts the current belief that the crystals are composed of calcium oxalate. Calcium phosphate is a common component of bone and teeth, and the researchers suggest that kidney stones first form as calcium phosphate and then change into calcium oxalate.
For the study, which appears in the March 1 issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, the researchers used infrared analysis to examine tissue from three groups of kidney stone patients.
These included: people who form calcium oxalate stones and account for 75 percent of all people with kidney stones; people who are prone to developing kidney stones after having intestinal bypass surgery for obesity; and a control group of people with malignant tumors in their ureters, the tubes that carry urine to the bladder.
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