WEDNESDAY, Sept. 19 (HealthDay News) -- The positions in which people sleep affect the degree of blood perfusion in their kidneys, which may in turn influence their development of kidney stones, according to a report in the August issue of Urology.
Bradley F. Schwartz, M.D., of the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine in Springfield, Ill., and colleagues recruited 10 volunteers, aged 31 to 57, with no history of urinary disease. Once a week for three weeks each subject was given a scintigraphy exam, one after spending 30 minutes lying in a supine position, one after spending 30 minutes in the right lateral decubitus position and one after spending 30 minutes in the left lateral decubitus position.
In the supine position, the mean differential renal perfusion was 52 percent on the left and 48 percent on the right. In the left lateral decubitus position, the mean differential perfusion was 61.3 percent in the left or dependent kidney and 38.7 percent in the right kidney. In the right lateral decubitus position, the mean renal perfusion in the right or dependent kidney was 63.3 percent versus 36.7 percent in the left kidney.
"The present study reveals that renal perfusion is affected by sleep position," the authors conclude. "This may open the way to more advanced research into a possible vascular etiology for stone disease."
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