According to a recently published analysis, people with urolithiasis have increased risk of gallstones and vice versa.
It is known that the risk of both diseases increases in patients with diabetes, obesity, as well as in people prone to eating unhealthy foods, but the connection between renal and gallstones persisted even after excluding all of these factors.
"According to the probability theory, a patient can have both diseases - there is nothing supernatural about this," says Dr. Brian Matlaga, a urologist at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. "But I'm a little lost trying to explain how they are related: kidney stones and gallstones are formed in different ways and have a different composition".
Data for the present analysis are obtained in three different lengthy studies conducted among physicians and nurses. All of them at the beginning of the study filled out questionnaires with questions about health and lifestyle, and in the future should have reported every 2 years about the appearance of any new diseases. In total, 240 thousand. Person for a period of 14 to 24 years.
During this time, 5100 people were diagnosed as having urolithiasis, and the diagnosis of cholelithiasis was 18,500. In people with cholelithiasis, the risk of getting urolithiasis was 26-32% higher (depending on sex and age) than in people who had never had cholelithiasis.
Communication also worked in the opposite direction: in people with urolithiasis in history, the risk of cholelithiasis increased by 17-51%. (Figures are obtained taking into account such factors as age, weight, features of nutrition, the presence of diabetes and arterial hypertension. ) Scientists working on the analysis, led by Eric Taylor from the Portland Medical Center in Maine, suggested that the predisposition to both diseases could be due to a change in the composition of the intestinal microflora, to which Dr. Taylor himself replied: "To be fair, Then we simply do not know how these diseases are connected! ".
As the researchers note, the situation may help to clarify additional studies, and if the common cause of these diseases is found, it will help doctors prevent one of the tandem diseases if the patient already has another.
In the meantime, according to Dr. Matlaga, the best way to protect against bile and urinary stones is to eliminate known risk factors, including extra pounds and excess cholesterol.
The results of the analysis are published in the "Journal of Urology".
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