title: Accurate stone analysis: the impact on disease diagnosis and treatment.
abstract: This manuscript reviews the requirements for acceptable compositional analysis of kidney stones using various biophysical methods. High-resolution X-ray powder diffraction crystallography and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) are the only acceptable methods in our labs for kidney stone analysis. The use of well-constructed spectral reference libraries is the basis for accurate and complete stone analysis. The literature included in this manuscript identify errors in most commercial laboratories and in some academic centers. We provide personal comments on why such errors are occurring at such high rates, and although the work load is rather large, it is very worthwhile in providing accurate stone compositions. We also provide the results of our almost 90,000 stone analyses and a breakdown of the number of components we have observed in the various stones. We also offer advice on determining the method used by the various FTIR equipment manufacturers who also provide a stone analysis library so that the FTIR users can feel comfortable in the accuracy of their reported results. Such an analysis on the accuracy of the individual reference libraries could positively influence the reduction in their respective error rates.
authors.affiliation: Division of Nephrology, Mandel International Stone and Molecular Analysis Center, Medical College of Wisconsin, Clement J. Zablocki Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Research Service/151, 5000 W. National Avenue, Milwaukee, WI, 53295, USA. nmandel@mcw.edu.
authors.forename: Neil S
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5783-7360
authors.initials: NS
authors.lastname: Mandel
authors.affiliation: Division of Nephrology, Mandel International Stone and Molecular Analysis Center, Medical College of Wisconsin, Clement J. Zablocki Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Research Service/151, 5000 W. National Avenue, Milwaukee, WI, 53295, USA.
authors.forename: Ian C
authors.initials: IC
authors.lastname: Mandel
authors.affiliation: Division of Nephrology, Mandel International Stone and Molecular Analysis Center, Medical College of Wisconsin, Clement J. Zablocki Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Research Service/151, 5000 W. National Avenue, Milwaukee, WI, 53295, USA.
authors.forename: Ann M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Kolbach-Mandel
mesh_terms: D003663:Decision Trees; D006801:Humans; D007669:Kidney Calculi / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000628:therapy
keywords: Calcium oxalate; FTIR; Kidney stone analysis; Uric acid; X-ray diffraction