Find in Library

Objective: The purposes of this multi-center study were to evaluate the rate of infection stones and to evaluate the urine cultures of patients with infection stones. Materials: Charts of adulpatients with urinary stones were reviewed and data on stone analyses and urine cultures were collected. Results: In total, 1204 renal stone formers (RSFs) from 10 countries were included (776 males, 428 females). Fifty-six patients (4.6%) had struvite stones. The highest frequency of struvite stones was observed in India (23%) and Pakistan (18%). Lower rates were reported in Canada (2%), China (3%), Argentina (3%), Iraq (3%), Italy (3.5%) and Poland (3%), and intermediate rates in Egypt (5.5%) and Bulgaria (5.4%). Urine cultures were retrieved from 508 patients. Patients with struvite stones had a positive culture in 64.3% of the samples and patients with other stones, in 26.7%. In struvite stones, the most common isolates were <i>Escherichia coli</i> (27.7%) and <i>Proteus</i> spp. (27.7%), followed by <i>Klebsiella</i> spp. (16.7%); in other types of stone, it was <i>Escherichia coli</i> (47.6%), followed by Gram-positive bacteria (14.0%) Conclusions: The struvite stone composition was associated with a urinary infection, although an infection was not demonstrable with a conventional midstream urine culture in about 30%.