ArticleUrolithiasis2013
High carbonate level of apatite in kidney stones implies infection, but is it predictive?
Article in Urolithiasis, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed, 39 citations in OpenAlex.
- Calcium Phosphate Nephrolithiasis: A Comprehensive Review.Kidney medicine · 2026Review
- The Impact of Intraoperative Dexamethasone and Mannitol on Postoperative Inflammatory Response in Totally Tubeless Percutaneous Nephrolithotomy: A Prospective, Double-Blind, Controlled Clinical Trial.Advances in urology · 2026Article
- Investigation of the predictive value of Hounsfield units in predicting stone culture results in urinary stone disease.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Article
- Article
- Continuous Intrarenal Pressure Monitoring during Endourological Procedures for Stone Disease: A Canary in the Coalmine for Optimizing Patient Safety.Urologia internationalis · 2025Review
- Article
- A novel infrared spectroscopy marker for assessing the postoperative infection risk in patients with upper urinary tract calculus.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Application of Inorganic Nanomaterials in Cultural Heritage Conservation, Risk of Toxicity, and Preventive Measures.Nanomaterials (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- Spectrum of Bacterial Pathogens from Urinary Infections Associated with Struvite and Metabolic Stones.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- The predictive and diagnostic ability of IL-6 for postoperative urosepsis in patients undergoing percutaneous nephrolithotomy.Urolithiasis · 2021Article
- The retrospective study of perioperative application of dexamethasone and furosemide for postoperative anti-inflammation in patients undergoing percutaneous nephrolithotomy.International urology and nephrology · 2021Article
- Trends in urinary calculi composition from 2005 to 2015: a single tertiary center study.Urolithiasis · 2020Article
- Defining a clinically significant struvite stone: a non-randomized retrospective study.International urology and nephrology · 2019Article
- Bladder calculi causing irreducible urogenital prolapse.BMJ case reports · 2018Article
- Evaluating factors that dictate struvite stone composition: A multi-institutional clinical experience from the EDGE Research Consortium.Canadian Urological Association journal = Journal de l'Association des urologues du Canada · 2018Article
- Matrix Stone Occupying an Entire Renal Collecting System: A Case Report and Video of Diagnostic Ureterorenoscopy.Case reports in urology · 2018Article
- Article
- Preoperative Bladder Urine Culture as a Predictor of Intraoperative Stone Culture Results: Clinical Implications and Relationship to Stone Composition.The Journal of urology · 2016Article
- Renal struvite stones--pathogenesis, microbiology, and management strategies.Nature reviews. Urology · 2014Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
The presence of infectious microorganisms in urinary stones is commonly inferred from stone composition, especially by the presence of struvite in a stone. The presence of highly carbonated apatite has also been proposed as a marker of the presence of bacteria within a stone. We retrospectively studied 368 patients who had undergone percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL), and who also had culture results for both stone and urine. Urine culture showed no association with stone mineral content, but stone culture was more often positive in struvite-containing stones (73 % positive) and majority apatite stones (65 %) than in other stone types (54 %, lower than the others, P < 0.02). In 51 patients in whom the carbonate content of apatite could be measured, carbonate in the apatite was weakly predictive of positive stone culture with an optimal cutoff value of 13.5 % carbonate (sensitivity 0.61, specificity 0.80). In positive cultures of stones (all mineral types combined), organisms that characteristically produce urease were present in 71 % of the cases, with no difference in this proportion among different types of stone. In summary, the type of mineral in the stone was predictive of positive stone culture, but this correlation is imperfect, as over half of non-struvite, non-apatite stones were found to harbor culturable organisms. We conclude that mineral type is an inadequate predictor of whether a stone contains infectious organisms, and that stone culture is more likely to provide information useful to the management of patients undergoing PCNL.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.