History of kidney stones ups risk of coronary heart disease in women

A history of kidney stones has been linked with an increased risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) in women but not in men, according to a new study.

An analysis of data from three studies that involved a total of more than 240,000 participants from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey reported the prevalence of a history of kidney stones of 10.6 percent in men and 7.1 percent in women.

Pietro Manuel Ferraro, M.D., of Columbus-Gemelli Hospital, Rome, and colleagues analyzed the relation between kidney stones and risk of incident CHD for individuals with a history of kidney stones.

The analysis included 45,748 men and 196,357 women in the United States without a history of CHD at baseline who were participants in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study (HPFS) (45,748 men 40-75 years of age; follow-up from 1986 to 2010), Nurses' Health Study I (NHS I) (90,235 women 30-55 years of age; follow-up from 1992 to 2010), and Nurses' Health Study II (NHS II) (106,122 women 25-42 years of age; follow-up from 1991 to 2009).

The diagnoses of kidney stones and CHD were updated biennially during follow-up. Coronary heart disease was defined as fatal or nonfatal myocardial infarction (MI; heart attack) or coronary revascularization.

Of a total of 242,105 participants, 19,678 reported a history of kidney stones.

After up to 24 years of follow-up in men and 18 years in women, 16,838 incident cases of CHD occurred.

"Multivariable-adjusted analysis of individual outcomes confirmed an association in NHS I and NHS II participants between history of kidney stones and myocardial infarction and revascularization. After pooling the NHS I and NHS II cohorts, women with a history of kidney stones had an increased risk of CHD, fatal and nonfatal myocardial infarction, and revascularization," the authors write.

The study was published in the journal JAMA.