Factors governing urinary tract stone disease.

Urinary stone formation depends on the degree of saturation of the urine with respect to potential stone-forming substances. Urine contains a range of electrolytes which ionise to different and variable degrees and which interact with one another in ways which influence their solubilities. These ionisations are themselves influenced by the pH of the urine which is another variable factor. Urinary organic molecules, which may or may not ionise and which may bear surface charges, also influence the solubility of the low molecular weight stone-constituents. Some other substances in the urine, such as glycosaminoglycans, can modify the ability of inorganic micro-crystals to aggregate and form stones. Environmental factors, other urinary tract pathology and genetic influences all predispose to urolithiasis, but many cases lack either an identifiable specific cause or the presence of recognisable risk factors. In the risk factor model of calcium stone formation there are pre-renal risk factors which lead to urinary risk factors and hence to the chemical risk factors of supersaturation and decreased ability to inhibit crystallisation. There are, in addition to these general factors which may act synergistically to produce urinary stones, several specific single enzyme defects which alter the urinary composition in such a way as to produce stones of a highly characteristic composition.