Kidney stones may increase bone fracture risk

People, especially women, who develop kidney stones may be at increased risk of experiencing bone fractures, finds a research.

Those who form stones in the kidneys and urinary tract - a condition called urolithiasis - may have reduced bone mineral density and be at an increased risk of bone fractures, the findings showed.

"The significantly higher risk at certain ages in males and females has profound public health implications," said Michelle Denburg from the University of Pennsylvania in the US.

To assess the link between urolithiasis and bone fractures, the researchers analysed information on 51,785 individuals in Britain who were diagnosed with urolithiasis and 517,267 matched individuals without urolithiasis.

Over a median period of 4.7 years, being diagnosed with urolithiasis was significantly linked with fractures, and the excess risk affected all skeletal sites.

In males, there was an overall 10 percent greater risk in those with urolithiasis, and the risk was greatest in adolescence (55 percent higher).

In women, there was a 17 percent to 52 percent higher risk of fracture from the third through seventh decades of life, with the highest risk in those aged 30 to 39 years.

"Given that the median time from diagnosis of urolithiasis to fracture was a decade, we might be able to intervene during this interval to reduce the burden of future fractures," Denburg pointed out.

The study is forthcoming in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.