Phase and microstructural study of urinary stones

In this paper we present the phase and morphological characteristics of urinary stones from Serbian patients. The study included for the first time the determination of the phase composition and a statistical analysis of the presence of different types of urinary stones in both men and women in Serbia. The main goal of study was representation of collected data for the first time. For past three years, more than 600 samples were collected from Serbian patients. The phase composition of all samples of urinary stones was investigated using XRD analysis. Morphology and chemical composition of phases in some characteristic samples was determinate by the SEM-EDS analysis. Results indicate that there are several different types of urinary stones that vary in mineral composition, chemistry and morphology. It was found that 312 (52%) of the 600 stones were composed of calcium oxalate minerals (CaOx): 17.3% of which were pure calcium oxalate monohydrate COM, 4% were pure calcium oxalate dihydrate COD; 200 (33.3%) were a mixture of CaOx and Hydroxyapatite HA, 19 (3.1%) were uric acid (uricite) UA and uric acid dihydrate UAD, 17 (2.8%) were a combination of UA and CaOx minerals, 41 (6.8%) were combination of CaP minerals and CaOx, 11 (1.9%) were cystine (Cy) stones. The obtained data shows the diversity of types of urinary stones. Morphological, chemical and XRPD analysis give us statistical data which shows that the most common urinary stones from Serbian patients are from CaOx group and in most of cases are associated with CaP.