title: Strategies and methods for the analytical investigation of urinary calculi.
abstract: Methods for the investigation of urinary calculi are briefly reviewed. Infrared spectrometry and X-ray diffraction provide results on the actual salts, including the different degree of hydration, in contrast to wet chemistry which only measures the ions of salts. Most often the quantitated ions can, however, be combined into salts by calculation, but the different degree of hydration cannot easily be recorded by wet chemistry. Wet chemistry, infrared spectrometry and X-ray diffraction can all provide reliable results. Routine performance should be generally improved by providing quantitative instead of 'qualitative' results. In wet chemistry calculation of recovery should be obligatory. Spectra covering 4000-400 cm-1 and probably also objective evaluation are important fields for improving infrared spectrometry. A laboratory service based on X-ray diffraction or infrared spectrometry should be available for laboratories using wet chemistry to investigate rare calculi. The results should preferably be given in molar units in accordance with IFCC recommendations. Names of components should conform to the IUPAC-nomenclature and trivial names should be avoided.
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D008722:Methods; D011786:Quality Control; D013055:Spectrophotometry, Infrared; D009626:Terminology as Topic; D014545:Urinary Calculi / Q000032:analysis*; D014961:X-Ray Diffraction