Paediatric urolithiasis in central coast region of Tunisia: changes in stone composition according to age and gender.
OBJECTIVE
Studies evaluating the influence of age and gender on the distribution of the various types of paediatric urinary calculi are scarce. Aim of our study was to high-light the modification of epidemiological characteristics of this pathology depending on patients' age and gender.


METHODS
We present the results of a study based on 205 calculi (from 122 boys and 83 girls) analyzed by infrared spectroscopy between 1993 and 2007. 54.6% of the patients were under 5 years.


RESULTS
Calcium oxalate (CaOx) was the predominant constituent in 54.7% of stones, followed by calcium phosphate and ammonium urate (14.6% each). We found a male preponderance for struvite stones (12.3% vs 1.2%), and an increasing prevalence of calcium oxalate stones with age (42.9% in infants vs 59.3% in older children). Purines stones were observed in 20% of cases, but their prevalence decreases with age (28.6% in infants vs 18.5% in old children).


CONCLUSIONS
The increase of calcium oxalate stone rate in school age children and the decrease of purines stones confirm the change on the etiology of urolithiasis according to age.
University Hospital, Department of Biochemistry and Toxicology, 5000 Monastir, Tunisia. akram_alaya@yahoo.co.uk
Akram
A
Alaya
Abdellatif
A
Nouri
Mohamed Fadhel
MF
Najjar
D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D012737:Sex Factors; D014416:Tunisia / Q000453:epidemiology; D014545:Urinary Calculi / Q000737:chemistry; D052878:Urolithiasis / Q000453:epidemiology*