title: Assessment of the role of general, biochemical and family history characteristics in kidney stone formation.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The main objective of the study was to determine the urinary risk factors involved in kidney stone formation.
  
  
  METHODS
  In this study a total number of 101 patients (64 males and 37 females) between the age group 2 and 70 years were selected. Personal characteristics like age, family history, clinical sign and symptoms, education, monthly income, living style, smoking or tobacco chewing habit, dietary intake and daily amount of drinking water were recorded.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The study showed that the risk of kidney stone formation was high in the median age group (16-25 years) both in male and female population. The most important factors associated with this were lack of drinking clean water, over weight and obesity as well as family history (37.5% and 27.02% in men and women, respectively).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our study has confirmed that lack of drinking sufficient amount of water, increasing weight and obesity and family history are some major factors contributing to the increased risk of kidney stone formation. Therefore it is very important to live a healthy life, drink clean water and control weight to prevent such diseases.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biotechnology and Informatics, BUITEMS, Quetta, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Faiza
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Jabbar
authors.affiliation: Department of Biotechnology and Informatics, BUITEMS, Quetta, Pakistan ; Office of Research Innovation and Commercialization, BUITEMS, Quetta, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Muhammad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Asif
authors.affiliation: Department of Biotechnology and Informatics, BUITEMS, Quetta, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Hajirah
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Dutani
authors.affiliation: Department of Biotechnology and Informatics, BUITEMS, Quetta, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Abrar
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hussain
authors.affiliation: Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (IMBB), The University of Lahore, Lahore, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Arif
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Malik
authors.affiliation: King Fahd Medical Research Center, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Mohammad Amjad
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Kamal
authors.affiliation: Center of Excellence in Genomic Medicine Research (CEGMR), King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Mahmood
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rasool
keywords: Kidney stone formation; Nephrolithiasis; Risk factors; Water intake