Presence of Oxalobacter formigenes in the intestinal tract is associated with the absence of calcium oxalate urolith formation in dogs

The incidence of calcium oxalate (CaOx) urolithiasis in dogs has increased steadily over the last two decades. A potential mechanism to minimize CaOx urolithiasis is to reduce enteric absorption of dietary oxalate by oxalate-metabolizing enteric bacteria. Enteric colonization of Oxalobacter formigenes, an anaerobe which exclusively relies on oxalate metabolism for energy, is correlated with absence of hyperoxaluria or CaOx urolithiasis or both in humans and laboratory animals. We thus hypothesized that decreased enteric colonization of O. formigenes is a risk factor for CaOx urolithiasis in dogs. Fecal samples from dogs with CaOx uroliths, clinically healthy, age-, breed- and gender-matched dogs, and healthy non-stone forming breed dogs were screened for the presence of O. formigenes by quantitative PCR to detect the oxalyl CoA decarboxylase (oxc) gene, and by oxalate degrading biochemical activity in fecal cultures. Prevalence of O. formigenes in dogs with CaOx uroliths was 25%, compared to 50% in clinically healthy, age-, breed- and gender-matched dogs, and 75% in healthy non-stone forming breeds. The presence of oxc genes of O. formigenes was significantly higher in healthy non-stone forming breed dogs than in the dogs with CaOx stones. Further, dogs with calcium oxalate stones and the stone-forming breed-matched controls showed comparable levels of biochemical oxalate degrading activity. We conclude that the absence of enteric colonization of O. formigenes is a risk factor for CaOx urolithiasis.     

Identificación endoscópica de la composición de los cálculos urinarios: un estudio del Southeastern Group for Lithiasis Research (SEGUR 2)

Introduction and objectivesTo assess the surgeon's ability to evaluate the composition of the stone by observation of endoscopic images.Materials and methodsA series of 20 video clips of endoscopic treatments of urinary stones of which was also available the result of infrared spectroscopy was uploaded to a YouTube site accessible only to members of the South Eastern Group for Urolithiasis Research (SEGUR) who were asked to identify the composition of the stones.ResultsA total of 32 clinicians from 9 different countries participated in the study. The average number of correct detections of participants was 7.81 ± 2.68 (range 1-12). Overall accuracy was 39% (250 out of 640 predictions). Calcium oxalate dihydrate stones have been correctly detected in 69.8%, calcium oxalate monohydrate in 41.8%, uric acid in 33.3%, calcium oxalate/uric acid in 34.3% and cystine in 78.1%. Precision rates for struvite (15.6%), calcium phosphate (0%) and mixed calcium oxalate/calcium phosphate (9.3%) were quite low.ConclusionsObservation of the stone during the endoscopic procedure was not reliable to identify the composition of most stones although it gave some information allowing to identify with a good sensitivity calcium oxalate dihydrate and cystine stones. Nevertheless, photo or video reporting of the intact stone and its internal structure could should be encouraged to implement results of still mandatory post-operative stone analysis. Endourologists should improve their ability of visual identification of the different types of stones.     

Analysis of Chemical Composition of Urinary Stones

Urinary stones develop in the course of complex physical and chemical processes and consist mainly of crystalline substances. Among numerous methods of analysing the chemical composition of uroliths the Merckognost reagent kit is used most commonly in clinical practice. The aim of the study was to assess based on this method, the composition of spontaneously excreted or surgically removed stones of patients with urolithiasis. The study material consisted of 392 chemical analyses of stones from 1747 patients with urolithiasis treated at an Urology Ward in the course of five years. Chemical analysis revealed calcium in 88.3% of calculi and phosphate as a part of two or three component calculi in 53.7% of cases. The mineral composition of urinary stones was in great percentage of the cases in accordance with the mineral sediment of the urine. The conformity of occurrence of particular elements in urinary sediment and in uroliths was 64–78% and constituted 78% of calcium oxalate, 72% of phosphate and 64% of uric acid and urate stone formers.     

Analysis of urinary calculi composition by infrared spectroscopy: a prospective study of 625 patients in eastern China

Urolithiasis is a common urologic disease whose prevalence is about 1–20% and increasing throughout the world. The recurrence rate after treatment is more than 50%. Urinary stone analysis is important in determining the possible etiology and the pathophysiology of stone formation. A better understanding of the stone composition may help prevent urinary stone formation. From March 2007 to December 2008, physical analysis of urolithiasis in patients who lived in eastern China for more than 5 years and underwent surgery or shock wave lithotripsy in our hospital or passed their stones spontaneously was carried out using the Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). Clinical and demographic findings were evaluated and compared with the stone components. Stone analysis was performed in 625 patients. The FT-IR evaluation showed that 234 (37.4%) were pure, and the most frequent was calcium oxalate (33.9%), followed by calcium phosphate (2.7%), and uric acid (0.8%). 391 (62.6%) were mixed stone, calcium oxalate (43.2%) was the most commonly major component, followed by calcium phosphate (16.3%), cystine (1.3%), uric acid (1.1%), and struvite (0.6%). Uric acid (p = 0.029) was the major component found more frequently in men, while struvite (p = 0.037) was more frequent in women. Uric acid (p = 0.031) was more common in lower urinary tract stones, and its formers with the mean age of 55 years were older than those with other components (p = 0.039). In eastern China, the most commonly found pure stone was calcium oxalate, while the most frequent mixed stone was calcium oxalate and calcium phosphate mixture. Stone location, gender, and age may influence stone component.     

Studies on urolithiasis. The histochemistry of the kidney tissues and stones from patients with urolithiasis

In this study, 17 kidney tissue specimens and 29 renal stones were obtained from patients with urolithiasis. Control kidney specimens were dissected from 7 individuals not suffering from urolithiasis. The tissue specimens were fixed with 1% cetylpiridinium chloride (CPC) in 10% formalin (for 24 hours at room temperature). Then the kidney tissue specimens were embedded in paraffin and stained with hematoxylin-eosin for general observation as well as histochemically for demonstration of complex carbohydrates. Also, stone specimens were embedded in epon and thin sections made by the mineral polishing specimen preparation, and stained along with the kidney tissues. For identifying individual acidic and neutral carbohydrates, the enzyme digestion was performed for some tissue sections prior to histochemical staining. The stone-forming kidney tissues, normal kidney tissues and urinary stones (calcium oxalate, mixed, struvite) contained some glycosaminoglycans and neutral glycoproteins, but uric acid stones and cystine stones did not. The results of digestion with enzymes indicated that calcium oxalate stone-forming kidney tissue contains heparitin (heparan) sulfate; mixed stone-forming tissue contains sialic acid, hyaluronic acid, chondroitin sulfate A, B, C and heparitin (heparan) sulfate; struvite stone-forming tissue contains sialic acid, hyaluronic acid, chondroitin sulfate A, C and heparitin (heparan) sulfate; and cystine stone-forming tissue contains sialic acid, chondroitin sulfate A, C and heparitin (heparan) sulfate. The stone organic matrix is classified into the amorphous and stratiform types. The amorphous type matrix contains chondroitin sulfate A, B, C and heparitin (heparan) sulfate, and the stratiform type matrix also contains sialic acid and hyaluronic acid. The stone-forming kidney tissues, normal kidney tissues and stones (calcium oxalate, mixed, struvite) contain an appreciable amount of alpha-D-glucose, alpha-D-mannose and beta-D-galactose, but the uric acid stones and cystine stones do not contain sugar residues. Since the specific glycosaminoglycan composition differed for kidneys of different mineral content and stones of different morphological type, we believe that some glycosaminoglycans in kidneys and amorphous type matrix might play the role of a nucleating agent, and that a stratiform type matrix encourages stone enlargement.     

232例湖北地区泌尿系结石红外光谱成分分析

目的：分析湖北地区泌尿系结石化学成分的构成,为本地区结石的防治提供依据。方法：采用结石红外光谱自动分析系统对2011年11月～2012年8月期间收集到的湖北地区泌尿系结石232例进行成分分析。结果：232例结石中,各成分的检出率为：一水草酸钙（COM）85．34％,二水草酸钙（COD）62．93％,碳酸磷灰石（CA）24．14％,无水尿酸（UA）12．93％,二水磷酸氢钙（PH）4．31％,磷酸铵镁（MAP）6．90％,黄嘌呤1．29％,胱氨酸（CYS）1．29％,方解石0．86％,尿酸铵（AU）0．86％。含草酸钙成分结石86．21％,含磷酸钙成分结石28．45％,含磷酸铵镁成分结石6．90％,含尿酸成分结石13．79％,含胱氨酸成分结石1．29％。混合成分结石181例（78．02％）,尿路结石发病男性多于女性,男女比例为3．14：1。结论：湖北地区泌尿系结石以混合性结石为主,COM检出率最高,其次为COD。结石成分分析对于结石的防治有重要意义。     

The characteristics of the chemical composition and structure of urinary stones and their prevalence in the cities of Moscow, Berlin and of the Kirghiz SSR

The authors studied the features of urolithiasis in three different geographical regions: Moscow, the Kirghiz SSR, and Berlin from the findings of examination of the composition and structure of uroliths removed by operation or passed spontaneously, (602 concrements from Moscow, 10,000 from Berlin, and 127 from Kirghizia). X-ray diffraction measurement, infrared spectrophotometry, and polarizing microscopy were conducted to analyze the composition and structure of the stones. Complex biochemical examination was carried out in patients from Moscow and Kirghizia. According to the results of the study, the following features of urolithiasis are common in the studied regions: (1) prevalence of oxalate lithiasis on the whole, which points to the principal role of metabolic factors in lithogenesis; (2) approximately similar amounts of apatite carbonate crystals in the uroliths; (3) certain similarity in composition of concrements from Berlin and Kirghizia. The most essential differences are: (1) the frequency of renal oxalate stones is highest in Berlin and lowest in Moscow. The prevalent types of calcium oxalate stones are: whewellite of concentric structure (linked with hyperuricemia) in Kirghizia; whewellite of small randomly orientated crystals (linked with hypercalciuria) and stones with signs of transformation of weddellite to whewellite in Moscow; (2) lesser distribution of phosphate lithiasis in Berlin than in Kirghizia and particularly in Moscow. Prevalence of struvite crystals in stones from Moscow, the formation of which is linked with the vital activity of Proteus and E. coli; (3) higher distribution of urate lithiasis in Moscow and particularly in Kirghizia where significant metabolic risk factors of lithogenesis were revealed.     

Mode of presentation and first line of management of non-recurrent urolithiasis in Kuwait

AIMS: To determine the incidence, mode of presentation, first line of management and composition of non-recurrent urolithiasis in Kuwait. METHODS: Consecutive patients admitted between January 1999 and December 2002 with non-recurrent urolithiasis were prospectively analyzed. RESULTS: The average annual incidence of hospital admission for non-recurrent urolithiasis in Kuwait was 43.44 per 100,000 population, representing men and women (ratio, 9:1) with a median age of 41.91 years. Of the hospital admissions for non-recurrent urolithiasis, 57.2% of cases were acute. Overall, the most predominant symptom was flank pain, while the least common symptom was acute urinary retention. Ureteroscopic stone manipulation was the most common initial treatment modality in the present series, as it was utilized in 43.3% and 37.09% for patients admitted on elective and emergency basis, respectively. Of the calculi available for chemical analysis, 91% contained calcium, 73% contained calcium oxalate, 17% contained mixed calcium and 1% contained calcium phosphate. The composition of the rest of the stones were urate in 7%, struvite in 1% and cystine in 1%. CONCLUSIONS: Urolithiasis is a common disease in the Kuwait region that mainly presents with flank pain. Ureteroscopic calculus removal is the most common modality of treatment. The majority of the calculi seen in Kuwait contained calcium.     

Changes in stone composition according to age in Tunisian pediatric patients

The epidemiology of renal stones has changed all over the world toward a predominance of calcium oxalate stones. However, studies evaluating the influence of age and gender on the distribution of the various types of urinary calculi are scarce. We will present the results of a study based on 205 calculi (from 122 boys and 83 girls) analyzed by infrared spectroscopy between 1993 and 2007. 90% of stones were collected by surgery, whereas only 6% by spontaneous passage. The biological exploration was performed in only 126 cases. Etiology was metabolic in 13.5%. 10.7% of stones were infectious, 13.1% were endemic and 54.9% were idiopathic. 7.8% were secondary to urinary stasis with malformation but no infection. Calcium oxalate (CaOx) was the predominant constituent in 54.7% of stones, followed by calcium phosphate and purines 14.6% in each of the cases. We found an increasing prevalence of calcium oxalate stones with age in both genders (42.9% in infant vs. 59.3% in child) (P < 0.05). Struvite stones were more frequent in infant than children. Purine stones were predominant in 20% of cases, but its prevalence decreases with age. The increase in calcium oxalate stone in school age children and the decrease in struvite and purine stones confirm the change on the etiology of urolithiasis according to age.     

Infrared spectroscopic analysis of urinary stones (including stones induced by melamine-contaminated milk powder) in 189 Chinese children

Aim

The aim of the study was to investigate the composition of the stones in Chinese children with urolithiasis, including peculiar stones induced by melamine-contaminated milk powder.

Materials and Methods

Between 1999 and 2009, 189 urinary stones from children of East China were received at our institution. Among them, 12 stones were received from pediatric stone formers with a history of consuming melamine-contaminated milk powder in 2008; and the remaining stones were defined as “natural” stones. All stones were analyzed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy.

Results

Among 177 “natural” stones, whewellite stone (49.72%) was observed most frequently followed by weddellite stone (15.25%), uric acid anhydrous stone (9.6%), carbapatite stone (9.04%), cystine stone (9.04%), ammonium acid urate stone (4.52%), struvite stone (2.26%), and sodium urate stone (0.56%). Twelve young children who consumed melamine-contaminated milk powder were younger than 3 years, and their stones were composed of a mixture of uric acid dihydrate and ammonium acid urate based on Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. In addition, the stones were radiolucent and could be dissolved by urine alkalinization.

Conclusions

Our study emphasizes the relatively high rate of calcium oxalate stones and cystine stones, and the relatively low rate of struvite stones in Chinese children with urolithiasis. The stones caused by melamine-contaminated milk powder are composed of the mixture of uric acid dihydrate and ammonium acid urate.     

ENDOSCOPIC MAPPING OF RENAL PAPILLAE FOR RANDALL''S PLAQUES IN PATIENTS WITH URINARY STONE DISEASE

Purpose

Papillary "Randall's plaques" are theorized to act as nidi for urinary stone formation. The aim of this study was to document the presence, pattern and distribution of Randall's plaques in patients undergoing endoscopic procedures for urinary stone disease.

Materials and Methods

Patients undergoing either ureteroscopy or percutaneous nephroscopy for removal of urinary stones underwent endoscopic mapping of accessible calices. These patients were compared to a smaller group of patients undergoing endoscopic procedures for conditions unrelated to urinary stone disease. In patients found to have papillary plaques the presence, location and pattern of plaques were recorded. Plaque formation was correlated with patient age and sex, and primary composition of extricated stone.

Results

Endoscopic evidence of papillary Randall's plaques was found in 74% of 57 patients having ureteroscopic (21) or percutaneous (36) stone removal. Of 7 patients having endoscopic procedures for conditions unrelated to urinary stone disease 3 (43%) had evidence of papillary plaques. Plaques were found uniformly throughout all calices and most commonly diffusely scattered over the papillary surface. There was no correlation between patient age or sex and the presence of plaques. The incidence of plaques varied with the primary composition of extracted stones, and was 100% for calcium phosphate and uric acid, 88% for calcium oxalate, 33% for cystine and 20% for struvite. The incidence of papillary plaques was significantly more common in patients with calcium oxalate (88 versus 43%, p = 0.023) and calcium phosphate stones (100 versus 43%, p = 0.009) than patients without a history of urinary stone disease.

Conclusions

The endoscopic incidence of papillary Randall's plaques in patients with urolithiasis varies with the primary composition of formed urinary stones. Randall's plaques are found in the majority of patients with calcium urinary stone disease. Our findings suggest that the presence of papillary plaques is associated with calcium nephrolithiasis and may contribute to the pathogenesis of calcium urinary stones.     

Urolithogenesis of mixed foreign body stones

Urine of male Sprague-Dawley rats was supersaturated for struvite and often contained struvite crystals. Ethylene glycol administration to these rats resulted in elevation of urinary oxalate and calcium oxalate supersaturation, and induced calcium oxalate crystalluria. Implantation of foreign bodies in their urinary bladders and changing their urinary ambient conditions by administering ethylene glycol for two weeks at two week intervals resulted in the formation of urinary stones of mixed composition containing calcium oxalate and struvite. Crystal-onto-crystal epitaxy did not appear to play any role in the development of these stones.     

Pattern of urolithiasis in Brooklyn, New York

Crystallographic analysis of 261 upper urinary tract calculi from patients in Brooklyn is presented. Calcium oxalate, uric acid, and struvite stones predominate. We could not confirm the hypothesis that uric acid forms a nidus in calcium oxalate urolithiasis in spite of a percentage of uric acid calculi more than twice the national average.     

Prevalence of upper urinary tract stones in Tajima, north Hyogo, Japan]

Toyooka Hospital is a central hospital in Tajima, a rural area in the northern part of Hyogo Prefecture. Because we possess the sole lithotripter in this area, almost all urolithiasis patients requiring treatment have been referred to our department. Based on the number of urolithiasis patients treated in our institution, we estimated the annual prevalence and incidence of upper urinary tract stones in the Tajima area. The mean annual prevalence of urolithiasis and incidence during the 1991-1993 period were 141 and 93 per 100,000, respectively. The male to female ratio was 2.0 to 1 in prevalence and 2.2 to 1.0 in incidence. Prevalence was highest in the sixties (245) and fifties (235), followed by the forties (205), seventies (162) and thirties (160). The incidence was highest in the fifties (169), followed by the forties (147), sixties (145) and thirties (118). In consideration of sex, the incidence was highest in males in the fifties and the forties. Of the patients with upper urinary calculi, 23.1% were treated by extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy, while in 23.8% stones passed spontaneously and 50.9% were followed up without treatment. On stone analysis, calcium oxalate and/or calcium phosphate was present in 75.6%, uric acid in 16.4%, struvite and/or carbonate apatite in 5.6% and cystine in 1.4%. In summary, the prevalence and incidence of upper urinary tract calculi in the Tajima area were considerably higher than those in the nationwide survey on urolithiasis in Japan conducted in 1985.     

广东东莞地区416例泌尿系结石成分分析

目的 应用红外光谱法测定东莞地区泌尿系结石化学成分,探讨本地区泌尿系结石患者的尿路结石成分特点,为本地区泌尿系结石的深化治疗、防止结石复发及预防提供科学依据.方法 收集经自行排出、碎石后排出或手术中取出的泌尿系结石标本416例,应用溴化钾压片技术的红外光谱法对其化学成分进行定性分析.结果 416例泌尿系结石患者中男性居多,占66.8%(278/416),女性占33.2%(138/416);上尿路结石占88.2%,下尿路结石(膀胱结石居多)占11.8%;结石成分定性分析共检测出一水草酸钙、二水草酸钙、碳酸磷灰石、无水尿酸、六水磷酸铵镁和尿酸铵6种化学成分.单一成分结石163例(一水草酸钙/无水尿酸/碳酸磷灰石/六水磷酸铵镁:98/56/6/3),占39.2%;混合成分结石253例,占60.8%,其中以草酸钙和碳酸磷灰石的混合结石为主(188/253).所有结石标本中草酸钙检出率最高,占80.5%(335/416),其次为碳酸磷灰石(49.3%)及无水尿酸(17.3%);膀胱结石成分以一水草酸钙或无水尿酸为主.结论 东莞为全国泌尿系结石最高发地区,其结石成分以草酸钙和碳酸磷灰石为主,单一成分结石亦占相当比例.尿路结石成分分析对了解结石成因可提供重要的线索,对临床制定个性化治疗方案、预防结石形成及复发具有重要意义.     

Clinical patterns of paediatric urolithiasis

A series of 270 paediatric stone patients was studied retrospectively according to the clinical pattern of urolithiasis (age and sex, stone location, stone analysis, recurrence rate) and aetiology of stone disease (infection, anatomical, metabolic or idiopathic). Infection stones occurred earliest and more commonly in males and were usually upper tract struvite calculi related to Proteus infection. Anatomical stones were most commonly associated with pelviureteric junction (PUJ) obstruction and had a high recurrence rate, despite surgical correction of obstruction. Idiopathic stones most resembled those found in adult urolithiasis by virtue of occurring latest, being sited in the ureter more often and being more frequently composed of calcium oxalate. Metabolic stones were most frequently calcium phosphate or cystine and virtually all were renal. They comprised the smallest group but had the highest recurrence rate.     

Presence of lipids in urinary stones: Results of preliminary studies

Summary The presence of lipids in urinary stones was determined by histochemical and biochemical methods. When crystals of calcium oxalate, made by mixing calcium chloride and potassium oxalate solutions and sections of human calcium oxalate urinary stones, were exposed to osmium vapors, there was no staining of the pure crystals whereas the stone sections were stained. De-paraffinized sections of demineralized calcium oxalate stones showed positive sudanophilia on staining with Sudan black B. Both these experiments indicate the presence of lipids in calcium oxalate stones. Lipids were extracted from uric acid, struvite, and calcium oxalate stones using standard techniques. Phospholipids were separated by one-dimensional thin layer chromatography. All the stones studied contained lipids. In calcium oxalate stones they accounted for 10.15% of the matrix. Calcium oxalate and struvite stones contained more phospholipids than uric acid stones. Cardiolipin, sphingomyelin, phosphatidyl choline, phosphatidyl inositol, phosphatidyl ethanolamine, phosphatidyl serine, and phosphatidyl glycerol were identified in lipid extracts. Demineralization by ethylenediaminetetraacetate (EDTA) treatment increased lipid output from calcium oxalate stones by 15.5%.     

Estimation of urinary stone composition by automated processing of CT images

The objective of this article was developing an automated tool for routine clinical practice to estimate urinary stone composition from CT images based on the density of all constituent voxels. A total of 118 stones for which the composition had been determined by infrared spectroscopy were placed in a helical CT scanner. A standard acquisition, low-dose and high-dose acquisitions were performed. All voxels constituting each stone were automatically selected. A dissimilarity index evaluating variations of density around each voxel was created in order to minimize partial volume effects: stone composition was established on the basis of voxel density of homogeneous zones. Stone composition was determined in 52% of cases. Sensitivities for each compound were: uric acid: 65%, struvite: 19%, cystine: 78%, carbapatite: 33.5%, calcium oxalate dihydrate: 57%, calcium oxalate monohydrate: 66.5%, brushite: 75%. Low-dose acquisition did not lower the performances (P < 0.05). This entirely automated approach eliminates manual intervention on the images by the radiologist while providing identical performances including for low-dose protocols.     

Carbonate in Struvite Stone Detected in Raman Spectra Compared with Infrared Spectra and X-Ray Diffraction

Background : In regard to identify the compositions of urinary stones, the infrared spectra is a contemporary routine method. However, it is difficult to detect the absorption of carbonate in struvite stone by infrared spectra, because NH₄ absorption of magnesium ammonium phosphate overlaps CO₃ absorption of carbonate at 1420–1435 cm^?1. With the purpose of demonstrating the existence of carbonate in struvite stones, the analysis of these stones by means of Raman spectra has been tried. Methods : Forty urinary stones, the chemical compositions of which were previously determined by infrared spectroscopy, were submitted to Raman spectrum analysis, and subsequently to analysis by x-ray diffraction. Results : Thirty of 40 urinary stones were found to be composed of struvite and of mixed struvite-calcium oxalate by infrared analysis. Twelve of these stones were shown to have Raman spectra of magnesium ammonium phosphate, and the other stones to have spectra of apatite. By x-ray diffraction magnesium ammonium phosphate crystals were detected in 25 of these struvite stones and hydroxyl-apatite in another 3, and 2 cases were undeterminable. For other components, such as calcium oxalate, uric acid and cystine, the analytical results of infrared spectra coincided with those of Raman spectra and x-ray diffraction. Carbonate was detected in only a part of one struvite stone by Raman spectra. Conclusions : Above-mentioned results may indicate that carbonate is only a minor component of urinary stones. Therefore, most of 1420–1435 cm^?1bands on the infrared spectra of struvite stones do not indicate CO₃ absorption of carbonate, but NH₄ absorption of magnesium ammonium phosphate.     

Matrix glycosaminoglycan in urinary stones

At first, urinary stones were classified according to their inorganic components (apatite, struvite, calcium oxalate monohydrate, calcium oxalate dihydrate and uric acid). Then, matrix glycosaminoglycan was extracted from the stones in each group and was analyzed by 2-dimensional electrophoresis. There were differences in the glycosaminoglycan content of matrices among different groups of urinary stones. The principal matrix glycosaminoglycan content consisted of hyaluronic acid in apatite and struvite stones, heparan sulfate in calcium oxalate monohydrate and uric acid stones, and hyaluronic acid and heparan sulfate in calcium oxalate dihydrate stones. We conclude that hyaluronic acid and/or heparan sulfate has an important role in urinary stone formation.