Relation of phosphate to formation of calcium oxalate urinary calculi

Abstract

This paper presents our study on the composition and morphology of 56 upper urinary tract calculi with infrared spectroscopy and polarizing microscope, and our observation of the ultramicroscopic structure of calculi with scanning electron microscope. In 5 urinary calculi the nuclei were at first found to be pure calcium oxalate by X-ray diffraction and even verified by infrared spectroscopy, but later it was found that none of these 5 calculi was pure oxalate, and most of the 56 nuclei were mixed with apatite. Our preliminary viewpoint is, therefore, that at the initial stage of oxalate calculus formation the nucleation might be not homogeneous, in which apatite might play an important role.

Keywords

calcium oxalate phosphate / hydroxyapatite / infrared spectroscopy / polarizing microscope / scanning electron microscope / homogeneous formation

References

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