Different possibilities exist. Is there some struvite or high level of carbonation of apatite in the kidney stone (both through measurements by FTIR spectroscopy)? There is another solution; are there some bacterial imprints at the surface of the kidney stone (observations through SEM)? But in that case there are no bacterial imprints at the surface of struvite kidney stones. We propose an explanation related to the size of the crystals. Does anybody have another explanation?
Article Absence of Bacterial Imprints on Struvite-containing Kidney ...
Struvite stones are made of magnesium ammonium phosphate. They are almost always associated with certain urinary tract infections.Specifically, the presence of urease-producing bacteria, including Ureaplasma urealyticum and Proteus species (most common), Staphylococcus species, Klebsiella species, Providencia species, and Pseudomonas species, leads to the hydrolysis of urea into ammonium and hydroxyl ions..Because more women than men have UTIs, more women than men develop struvite stones. These stones can grow very large and can block the kidney, ureter, or bladder.
In most of the cases, the formation of struvite is induced by urinary infection. In this case there is also a rise of the urine toward a more alkaline pH. It is otherwise hard to explain the presence of ammonia, but the biopathological crystallization can be taken in to account. More detailed study on the stones can be carried out by electron micro-probe investigation, like elemental mapping. This can be done at 1 micron resolution.
I think it is important to point out that the relationship between infection and onset of renal calculi hasn't been totally explained even for struvite nephrolithiasis. In fact, there are data suggesting that even other bacteria, in addiction to the urease-producing ones, may have a role in the onset of the struvite nephrolithiasis. Very recent data show that in the cases of staghorn nephrolithiasis, traditionally considered as infective, is possible to detect a metabolic origin and the role of possible infective agents remains unclear. And I agree with Dr Forray: "More detailed study on the stones can be carried out by electron micro-probe investigation, like elemental mapping".
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