Urinary lithiasis and idiopathic hypercalciuria: the importance of dietary intake evaluation

puspose: to evaluate food intake of patients with urinary lithiasis and idiopathic hypercalciuria (ih). materials and methods: between august 2007 and june 2008, 105 patients with lithiasis were distributed into 2 groups: group 1 (n = 55) - patients with ih (urinary calcium excretion > 250 mg in women and 300 mg in men with normal serum calcium); group 2 (n = 50) - normocalciuria (nc) patients . inclusion criteria were: age over 18, normal renal function (creatinine clearance = 60 ml/min), absent proteinuria and negative urinary culture. pregnant women, patients with some intestinal pathology, chronic diarrhea or using corticoids were excluded. the protocol of metabolic investigation was based on non-consecutive collection of two 24-hour samples for dosages of: calcium, sodium, uric acid, citrate, oxalate, magnesium and urinary volume. food intake was evaluated through the quantitative method of dietary register of three days. results: urinary excretion of calcium (433.33 ± 141.92 vs. 188.93 ± 53.09), sodium (280.08 ± 100.94 vs. 200.44.93 ± 65.81), uric acid (880.63 ± 281.50 vs. 646.74 ± 182.76) and magnesium (88.78 ± 37.53 vs. 64.34 ± 31.84) was significantly higher in the ih group in comparison to the nc group (p < 0.05). as regards the nutritional composition of food intake of ih and nc groups, there was no statistical significant difference in any nutrient evaluated. conclusion: in our study, no difference was observed in the food intake of patients with urinary lithiasis and ih or nc.