Urolithiasis in patients with end stage renal failure.

Renal stones from 30 chronic hemodialysis patients were subjected to morphological study by means of microscopic examination and to constitutional analysis with infrared spectrophotometry. In 29 patients calculi could be classified into 3 main types: 1) protein stones made of pure proteins or with a protein core and less than 30% calcium oxalate (9 cases, or 30%)--they were observed predominantly in patients with primary glomerular disease, 2) oxalo-protein stones with a core of calcium oxalate and a total stone content of more than 30% calcium oxalate (15 cases, or 50%)--they appeared to be related to metabolic factors, such as high urinary oxalate and low urinary citrate concentration, and to iatrogenic factors, namely vitamin D3 and calcium salt supplementation, and 3) aluminum-magnesium urate stones, probably induced by aluminum overload (6 cases, or 20%). Thus, our study indicates that a significant proportion (70%) of stones formed by hemodialysis patients may be due to metabolic and iatrogenic factors.

[Anti-hypertensive drugs prescribed to the elderly. Multicenter study at the hospital admission of 631 patients aged 70 plus years].

The anti-hypertensive treatment of 631 patients 70 years old and over was evaluated at the time of their hospitalization in 12 Internal Medicine departments in the western Paris suburbs, in May and June 1990. 49.6 +/- 3.

[Should fragments of stone expelled after extracorporeal lithotripsy always be analyzed?].

The morphological and constitutional analysis of renal stone fragments expelled after extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy enables the structure and morphological type of stones to be reconstructed in 92.8 per cent of the cases as regards surface and section and in 74.5 per cent of the cases down to the core.