Association of serum bicarbonate with the development of kidney stones in patients with chronic kidney disease: a retrospective cohort study

Background Epidemiological studies demonstrate an association between kidney stones and risk of chronic kidney disease (CKD) and CKD progression. Metabolic acidosis, as a consequence of CKD, results in a reduced urine pH which promotes the formation of some types of kidney stones and inhibits the formation of others. While metabolic acidosis is a risk factor for CKD progression, the association of serum bicarbonate with risk of incident kidney stones is not well understood. Methods We used an Integrated Claims-Clinical dataset of US patients to generate a cohort of patients with non-dialysis-dependent CKD with two serum bicarbonate values of 12 to <22 mmol/L (metabolic acidosis) or 22 to <30 mmol/L (normal serum bicarbonate). Primary exposure variables were baseline serum bicarbonate and change in serum bicarbonate over time. Cox proportional hazards models evaluated time to first occurrence of kidney stones during a median 3.2-year follow-up. Results A total of 142 884 patients qualified for the study cohort. Patients with metabolic acidosis experienced post-index date kidney stones at greater frequency than patients with normal serum bicarbonate at the index date (12.0% vs 9.5%, P < .0001). Both lower baseline serum bicarbonate [hazard ratio (HR) 1.047; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.036-1.057] and decreasing serum bicarbonate over time (HR 1.034; 95% CI 1.026-1.043) were associated with increased risk of kidney stone development. Conclusions Metabolic acidosis was associated with a higher incidence of kidney stones and shorter time to incident stone formation in patients with CKD. Future studies may investigate the role of correcting metabolic acidosis to prevent stone formation. Lay Summary The objective of this study is to evaluate the association between serum bicarbonate level and kidney stone development in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). We used an Integrated Claims-Clinical dataset of US patients to generate a cohort of 142 884 patients with CKD with two serum bicarbonate values of 12 to <22 mmol/L (metabolic acidosis) or 22 to <30 mmol/L (normal serum bicarbonate). We found that patients with metabolic acidosis experienced kidney stones at greater frequency than those with normal serum bicarbonate. Both lower baseline serum bicarbonate and decreasing serum bicarbonate over time were associated with increased risk of kidney stone development. In summary, metabolic acidosis was associated with a higher incidence of kidney stones and shorter time to stone formation in patients with CKD. Future studies may investigate the role of correcting metabolic acidosis to prevent stone formation.

Automated summary

This study evaluated the association between serum bicarbonate level and kidney stone development in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). It found that metabolic acidosis was associated with a higher incidence of kidney stones and shorter time to stone formation in patients with CKD. Future studies may investigate the role of correcting metabolic acidosis to prevent stone formation.