Effect of blind treatment on stone disease.

Most of the drugs administered to stone patients appear to be inappropriate and doing more harm than good to the patients. The objective of this paper is to identify the prevalence of blind chemotherapy among the stone patients and find out the real indication for the drugs administered. Patients who attended the stone clinic for the first time were interviewed to find out what drugs they had been taking before the attendance at the stone clinic.

Stone symptoms and urinary deposits.

There is a general belief among the public and clinicians that urinary stone problem is always associated with symptoms like pain, dysuria and haematuria. Many patients stop medical treatment when they are symptom free and return with excruciating pain, dysuria and haematuria either alone or in combination. The objective of this study was to determine stone activity in an individual patient by assessing the urinary deposits at the time of the visit to the stone clinic and correlate with the presence or absence of symptoms at that time.

Photmicrography of urinary deposits in stone clinic.

The importance of routine urine deposit study has not been projected satisfactorily in literature. This paper analyses the findings of urine microscopy of urinary stone patients who attended the stone clinic. A total number of 800 patients who attended the urinary stone clinic during the years 2005-2007 were selected for the study.

Retrieval methods for urinary stones.

This paper attempts to assess the current status of the various modalities of available treatment for urinary stone disease in the Kerala scenario. A total of 300 patients who attended the stone clinic with urinary stone disease and had stones retrieved by different means were selected for the study. Their clinical symptoms, demographic profile, size, number and position of stones, metabolic profiles, retrieval modalities and end result of treatment in terms of stone clearance were assessed.

Temporary risk identification in urolithiasis.

We have been using a risk index calculation for urolithiasis, which included most of the identifiable factors promoting calculogenesis. However, it was observed that the frequency of a patient getting stone problem was not uniform in spite of similarity of the risk index in the permanent setting. Also, many of the risk indices could be changed by dietary or lifestyle modifications.

Investigations for recognizing urinary stone.

This study was done to identify the value of the commonly performed investigations available for identifying urinary stone disease, namely X-ray of the kidney, ureter and bladder (KUB) regions and ultrasound scan (USS) to recognize stones in patients suspected to have the disease. Two hundred patients who attended the stone clinic with symptoms suggestive of urinary stone disease and had either stone retrieved or have been followed up for minimum of 6 months were interviewed. The final opinion on stone disease was made after follow-up to assess the efficacy of the initial opinion based on the plain X-ray KUB or USS.

Drug dosage protocol for calcium oxalate stone.

In earlier studies, we have confirmed that in most patients with calcium oxalate stone formation, a combination of allopurinol and pyridoxine is best suited for treatment and prevention of the stone forming process. The objective of this study is to identify the most effective directed medical treatment of urinary stones. The drug dose adjustment was based on clinical, radiological, biochemical, and microscopic parameters.

Pattern of family history in stone patients.

Genetic predisposition to urolithiasis is a much discussed topic. The objective of this paper is to identify the types of family members of proved urinary stone patients, who have a history of urinary stone formation. The study population consisted of 2,157 urinary stone patients interviewed in 2003-2007 in the urinary stone clinic.

Clinical risk index in urolithiasis.

Various risk indices have been propounded by various authors to assess the severity of stone formation in the human urinary tract. However, most of these indices are laboratory oriented and not feasible to be performed in a hospital setting. Most of these also do not take into consideration all the possible influences on stone formation.