Meeting report of the “Symposium on kidney stones and mineral metabolism: calcium kidney stones in 2017”

Abstract

A symposium on kidney stones and mineral metabolism held on December 2017 in Brussels, Belgium was the first international multidisciplinary conference of the International Collaborative Network on Kidney Stones and Mineral Metabolism. This meeting addressed epidemiology, underlying pathophysiological mechanisms, genetics, pathological, as well as clinical and research topics. The participants included clinicians and recognized experts in the field from Europe and the United States interacted closely during the symposium which promoted a chance to explore new frontiers in the field of kidney stone disease. This manuscript summarizes some of the major highlights of the meeting.

Risk of Kidney Stones: Influence of Dietary Factors, Dietary Patterns, and Vegetarian–Vegan Diets

“…Nephrolithiasis is known to be a medical condition characterized by high prevalence all over the world [1][2][3]. Furthermore, during the last decades, the incidence of nephrolithiasis is rising in both genders [2,4], with resulting increased economic burden for health systems [5].…”

Practice patterns of kidney stone management across European and non-European centers: an in-depth investigation from the European Renal Stone Network (ERSN)

“…Kidney stones are increasingly common in the general population [1,2]. Despite their high recurrence rates and costs [3][4][5], and their association with severe conditions such as end-stage renal disease and cardiovascular disease [6][7][8][9][10][11], systematic efforts to standardize their evaluation and follow-up have been scarce. Recently, we reported on the preliminary results of a survey aimed at investigating practice patterns of kidney stone management across centers in Europe with a renowned interest in kidney stones [12].…”

The epidemiology of kidney stones in Belgium based on Daudon’s morpho-constitutional classification: a retrospective, single-center study

“…Unfortunately, in every day clinical practice this is by far the most frequent clinical scenario as the patient undergoes metabolic evolution at least two months after the acute manifestation or urological intervention (according to current guidelines). In this context, the identification of prior urine metabolic abnormalities involved in initiation and growth of stones could be revealed only by adequate morphological and physicochemical analysis of stones as described by Daudon [2], which should integrate a metabolic work-up guidelines as previously proposed.…”

“…Kidney stone disease (KSD) is a chronic disorder of mineral metabolism with preventable acute renal manifestations and chronic extrarenal complications [1][2][3][4][5].…”