title: Kidney stones and cardiovascular risk: a meta-analysis of cohort studies.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Recent epidemiologic evidence suggests an association between kidney stones and incident cardiovascular disease after adjusting for other cardiovascular risk factors, but results are inconsistent.
  
  
  METHODS
  Meta-analysis of cohort studies.
  
  
  METHODS
  Patients with kidney stones.
  
  
  METHODS
  Cohort studies with data for kidney stones and cardiovascular morbidity identified in PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, and conference proceedings through February 27, 2014.
  
  
  METHODS
  Kidney stones as determined by physician diagnosis, clinical coding, or self-reported scales.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Cardiovascular disease, coronary heart disease (CHD), and stroke.
  
  
  RESULTS
  6 cohort studies that contained 49,597 patients with kidney stones and 3,558,053 controls, with 133,589 cardiovascular events, were included. Pooled results suggested that kidney stones were associated with an increased adjusted risk estimate for CHD (HR, 1.19; 95% CI, 1.05-1.35; P=0.05; n=6 cohorts) and stroke (HR, 1.40; 95% CI, 1.20-1.64; P<0.001; n=3 cohorts). In particular, kidney stones conferred HRs of 1.29 (95% CI, 1.10-1.52; n=6 cohorts) and 1.31 (95% CI, 1.05-1.65; n=4 cohorts) for myocardial infarction and coronary revascularization, respectively. Moreover, the pooled female cohorts showed a statistically significant association (HR, 1.49; 95% CI, 1.21-1.82; n=4 cohorts), whereas the male cohorts showed no association (HR, 1.15; 95% CI, 0.89-1.50; n=2 cohorts).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Results may be limited by substantial heterogeneity, likelihood of residual confounding, and paucity of studies that separately evaluated for effect modification by sex.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Kidney stones were associated with increased cardiovascular risk, including the risk for incident CHD or stroke. There is some suggestion that the risk may be higher in women than men. Further prospective studies are needed to determine whether the association is sex specific.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Laboratory, First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China.
authors.forename: Yanqiong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Laboratory, First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China.
authors.forename: Shan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China.
authors.forename: Zhiyu
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zeng
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Laboratory, First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China.
authors.forename: Jian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Laboratory, First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China.
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Laboratory, First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China.
authors.forename: Taijie
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Laboratory, First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China.
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: He
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Laboratory, First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China. Electronic address: qinxue919@126.com.
authors.forename: Xue
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Qin
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopaedics Trauma and Hand Surgery, First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China.
authors.forename: Jinmin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhao
mesh_terms: D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007669:Kidney Calculi / Q000150:complications*; D008297:Male; D012307:Risk Factors
keywords: Cardiovascular; coronary heart disease (CHD); kidney stones; meta-analysis; nephrolithiasis; renal calculus; risk factor; stroke