title: Race, ethnicity and urolithiasis: a critical review.
abstract: Using combinations of the key words urolithiasis, kidney stones, race, ethnicity, population group in Google Scholar and Pubmed, a literature search identified 40 articles. Of these, 33 satisfied the principal inclusion criterion of studies involving comparison of at least two groups in which there is a perceived difference in stone occurrence. Studies were classified as "weak" (no attempt to account for inter-racial or inter-ethnic group differences in stone occurrence), "soft" (speculative explanations reached by default) or "hard" (explanations based on empirically measured lithogenic risk factors). Only 12 studies (36 %) fell into the latter category. Among these, a wide diversity of lithogenic factors was invoked to explain inter-group differences in stone rates. Traditional urinary physicochemical risk factors do not convincingly account for these differences. Studies have failed to yield a consolidated and unifying theory which compellingly explains racial and ethnic differences in urolithiasis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, Cape Town, 7701, South Africa. allen.rodgers@uct.ac.za
authors.forename: Allen L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Rodgers
mesh_terms: D004198:Disease Susceptibility; D015981:Epidemiologic Factors; D005006:Ethnicity; D006801:Humans; D044469:Racial Groups; D012307:Risk Factors; D014556:Urine / Q000737:chemistry; D052878:Urolithiasis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology* / Q000652:urine