Renal papillary attenuation differences between primary and recurrent idiopathic calcium stone disease patients

Abstract

Aim: The aim of this paper was to investigate whether renal papillae of patients with neph-rolithiasis are more radiodense than that of control patients and to evaluate the predictability of urolithiasis using papillary density differences between stone and non-stone formers. Methods: Renal papillary Hounsfield Unit (HU) measurements were conducted at the level of upper pole, middle region and lower pole of both kidneys in a total of 126 primary (group 1), 133 recurrent (group 2) stone disease patients and 108 controls (group 3). Result: Mean patient age did not differ significantly between groups (P>0.05). Mean stone diameters (±SD) were 5.O±3.1 mm (3-9 mm) and 6.1±3.3 mm (3-15 mm) for primary and recurrent groups, respectively and group distributions and variances were similar (P>0.05). Mean papillary attenuation values (±SD) were 27.26±9.3O (4.00-56.00) in group 1, 3O.42±9.88 (12.00-64.00) in group 2 and 25.83±2.72 (20.30-32.56) in the control group. The difference between the mean papillary attenuation value of the primary stone disease group and the control group was statistically insignificant (P=0.104). When the control group and the recurrent stone group was compared without variances, in terms of the mean renal papillary attenuation value, a statistical significance was achieved (P=0.000). Conclusion: With increasing renal papillary HU values, the risk of recurrent calcium stone disease is increased.