This result is in agreement with Fuselier et al., who ob­served a small, but significant, decrease in urinary calcium ex­cretion during treatment periods. Ali Tekin et al. evaluated, in an open clinical trial, the effects of oral potassium citrate therapy (22 months) in children with calcium stones and hypoc- itraturia; these Authors confirmed that potassium citrate re­duces the recurrence of renal stones and seems to be a safe treatment. These Authors too, found a decrease in urinary cal­cium excretion although it remained within the normal range in most cases, so they concluded that potassium citrate seems to influence, to a low degree, calcium excretion. Moreover, in our paper, basal values of citraturia were lower than follow up values. However, when patients were sub- dived according to urinary citrate excretion, those with the low­est basal citraturia (citraturia lower than 320 mg/24 hours) be­haved differently. In fact after a rise in the first year, urinary cit­rate excretion returned to values similar to or lower than basal value. Also Fuselier et al. observed that in 21% of patients treated with potassium citrate, urinary citrate excretion did not rise. The Authors stated the need for a careful follow-up of the patients treated with potassium citrate in order to identify pa­tients requiring a more aggressive medical therapy and to properly modify the dose of alkali salts. Oxalate, uric acid and creatinine excretion as well as urine vol­ume do not change during the follow up of patients treated with potassium citrate. Moreover potassium citrate does not usually induce an increase in the relative supersaturation ratio of brushite, as it reduces urinary calcium excretion, although an excessive amount of potassium citrate may increase the relative supersaturation ratio of brushite. Furthermore, in patients with distal renal tubular acidosis, potassium citrate treatment appears to improve calcium bal­ance. 1 Internet Online Drugstore canadian medshop 247

In fact it increases intestinal calcium absorption by means of a 1,25(OH)₂D₃ independent mechanism and reduces urinary calcium excretion. According to some authors, the de­creased calcium excretion can be explained by an increased calcium reabsorption in the distal tubule induced by metabolic alkalosis as well as by the increased luminal pH. The chronic treatment with potassium citrate and other alkaline salts may result in a positive calcium balance. In fact a small but significant increase in bone mineral density in stone form­ing females has been shown. Also Sebastian et al., after treating a group of healthy postmenopausal women with potas­sium bicarbonate, observed an improved calcium balance through an interaction of bone remodelling phases. Several studies in vitro showed that citrate inhibits struvite for­mation. In fact it causes the chelation of magnesium, the dis­ruption of the hydrogen and ionic binding of this mineral and the coating of the surface of struvite crystal. In conclusion alkaline citrate seems to be a rational approach to the treatment of nephrolithiasis in patients with or without hypocitraturia, as it reduces some risk factors involved in stone recurrence. Moreover this form of therapy presents a small number of side effects, mainly gastro-intestinal symptoms (e.g. diarrhea and nausea) and in very few cases hyperkaliemia. About the safety of potassium citrate supplementation there is a general agreement in literature; however Coe et al. report some experimental papers showing that citrate increases in­testinal absorption of some metals such as aluminum and lead. These Authors suggest renal function in patients with re­nal failure should be carefully evaluated to avoid an increased intestinal absorption of aluminum, particularly if they are treat­ed with aluminum antacids. The same precautions may be of some use also in patients with renal stones.

Several studies have pointed out that alkaline citrate is one of the most efficient therapeutic regimens in the treatment of idio- pathic calcium nephrolithiasis. In 2001 the Advisory Board of European Urolithiasis Research recommended alkaline citrate, thiazides and fluid intake as the corner-stones in preventing calcium stone formation. Oral citrate administration results in an alkali load that, in turn, increases urinary citrate excretion by means of a reduction in the tubular reabsorption of this ion. The consequent high urinary citrate concentration and the alkalinization of the urine cause several effects that struggle against CaOx and CaP crystallization. The increased intra- luminal pH induces a dissociation of citrate and the inhibitory macromolecules, resulting in an enhanced inhibiting power. For example, it has been suggested that Tamm-Horsfall protein (THP) shows a dichotomous behaviour on stone formation, act­ing either as promoter or as an inhibitor of crystallization processes. When urinary citrate increases and luminal pH ris­es, THP viscosity decreases and its inhibitory effect on calcium oxalate aggregation is enhanced. On the contrary in the ab­sence of citrate THP promotes calcium oxalate aggregation. As far back as 1985 Preminger et al. demonstrated that new stone formation continued in 39% of the patients during conser­vative or placebo trials and 69% of untreated stone formers however, needed at the end surgical treatment. On the other hand only 2% of the patients receiving alkaline citrate required further surgical treatment. In the last two decades alkaline salts have been widely used in patients with recurrent calcium stone disease and in several other pathological conditions asso­ciated or not with calcium stones (Table III). The most common­ly used salts are potassium citrate, sodium-potassium citrate, potassium-magnesium citrate and calcium citrate, although potassium citrate is usually the preferential treatment. Both potassium citrate and sodium-potassium citrate, in fact, can ameliorate urinary composition, but the sodium load in­duced by the latter can increase calcium excretion or a less pronounced reduction of calciuria. In fact citrate has shown to be able to reduce urinary calcium excretion. Furthermore, in patients with hypertension, sodium intake must be restricted, as well as in patients with calcium oxalate lithiasis treated with thiazide. In fact, sodium load induces a hypercalciuria that is uncontrollable with thiazide. my canadian healthcare discount drugs online

Magnesium is and inhibitor of CaP crystal growth and the com- plexing of magnesium and oxalate induces a decrease in the supersaturation with respect to CaOx. Nevertheless it has been observed that also magnesium excretion is associated with an increased calcium excretion, thus reducing the inhibiting effect of potassium-magnesium citrate on stone formation. Moreover long-term studies on potassium-magnesium citrate administra­tion are still lacking. However this alkaline citrate appears to enhance thiazide effect on urinary calcium reabsorption when this drug is co-administered. Long-term thiazide therapy, in fact, may result in decresead plasmatic and urinary magnesium and in this very case magnesium supplements appear to be of value. Finally promising results have come from Ettinger et al. which found that potassium-magnesium citrate is effective in preventing calcium oxalate stone recurrence. Calcium citrate is generally prescribed as a calcium supple­ment in the treatment of osteoporosis, while it is not usually used for calcium lithiasis therapy. Calcium citrate increases both urinary citrate and calcium excretion. Notwithstanding the growth of calciuria, this compound provides an alkali load, which in turn counteracts the increased calcium excretion. Thus the risk of stone formation does not appear to be en­hanced. Therefore calcium citrate seems to induce a lower risk of stone formation than all the other calcium supplements. Most of the studies on renal stone prevention have been con­ducted using potassium citrate as alkaline salt. A decrease in urinary calcium concentration has been well documented with this drug. In a previous work we were able to demon­strate the ability of potassium citrate to decrease urinary calci­um excretion after 9 months of therapy, but the same re­sult was not confirmed in a successive paper, where the follow up period was extended to 48 months. In fact, after an increase in urinary calcium excretion during the first year of therapy, calciuria began to decrease slowly, but progressively, in the follow up.

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Low urinary citrate excretion is a common feature of idiopathic calcium stone disease. Several cut-off values have been pro­posed to classify hypocitraturia. In 1983, Nicar et al. defined hypocitraturia as a 24 hour citrate excretion lower than 320 mg (or 1.7 mmol) while other authors fixed the limit below the normal range. These different cut-off values may account for the wide range of hypocitraturia prevalence in nephrolithiasis, since it varies from 8% up to 68.3% in the liter­ature reports (Table II). Another factor which may account for these difference in prevalence is the possibility of considering hypocitraturia as a single metabolic alteration. In fact in a previous paper we found a hypocitraturia frequency, considered as a single metabolic derangement, of 12%, whereas, when con­sidering hypocitraturia together with hypercalciuria and/or hy- peruricosuria, this rate increased to 32%. Last but not least, the evaluation of urinary citrate excretion is highly influ­enced by food intake. Therefore a relevant difference in daily citrate excretion will occur according to whether patients are on their home diet or on controlled diet. A commonly accepted limit under which hypocitraturia may be diagnosed has been proposed by Pak. This Author suggested a “functional” definition of hypocitraturia which is a citrate ex­cretion lower than 320 mg/day. Online Pharmacy cad-pharmacy.com

Notwithstanding the cut-off value adopted, several authors have described a higher rate of hypocitraturia in recurrent stone formers (41%) than in single stone formers (29%), as well as a higher urinary citrate excretion in pre-menopausal fe­males than in males and menopausal females. The daily urinary citrate to calcium ratio has also been used as a risk factor for stone formation. In fact it has been observed that patients with hypocitraturia, as a single metabolic alter­ation, showed higher urinary citrate excretion than those with several metabolic abnormalities. Moreover a higher rate of hypocitraturia was present also in stone formers with a very ac­tive calcium stone disease and/or low urinary citrate/calcium ratio. Welshman and McGeown found a calcium/citrate ratio in stone formers and normal subjects of 4.52 and 3.02 re­spectively, while in stone forming females this ratio was 3.54 and 1.41 in healthy females. Similar results were obtained in successive studies. Finally, Parks et al. examined the cit­rate/calcium ratio in 13 studies in which patients were man- tained on their home diet, and they found a clear difference be­tween renal stone formers and healthy subjects. Stone- forming females had higher urinary calcium and lower citrate than control females, whereas stone forming males presented a significantly higher urinary calcium excretion than normal subiects but only a small decrease in citrate excretion. Further­more, also the studies in which the patients ate controlled di­ets, showed, generally, a lower urinary citrate excretion in stone formers than in healthy subjects and these differences persisted when the subjects were considered separately ac­cording to sex. Finally, also in a recent paper, dealing with hypercalciuria and bone mass, we have found a higher urinary citrate excretion in females than in males (p=0.019) and the prevalence of hypocitraturia in the whole population was 25.5% (unpublished data).

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Introduction and physiological elements

Nephrolithiasis is a multisystem disease arising from the siner- gic effects of enviromental, hormonal and genetic factors. The annual incidence of renal stones is between 0.1 and 0.4% and nephrolithiasis shows wide geographical variations. In Eu­rope an incidence of 2000 stones per million of population has been reported. The lifetime risk of stone formation ranges between 5 and 10% with an expected recurrence rate of almost 50%. Up to 70-80% of patients have calcium-containing stones with a predominance of calcium oxalate (CaOx), with or without calcium phosphate (CaP). canadian-healthcare-shop cheap generic drugs online

Citrate is a weak acid, with a molecular weight of 189 KDa, that is synthesized in the Krebs cycle starting from the condensa­tion of acetyl-CoA and oxalacetate, or that may derive from ex­ogenous intake. In plasma and in urine (although to a lesser degree) citrate is present mainly as a trivalent anion citrate^-3; whereas, when the pH becomes more acidic the divalent form of anion citrate^-2, increases significantly. The mean daily intake of citrate with the diet is 4 grams and its intestinal absorption is rapid and almost complete. Plasma citrate is filtered by the kidney and then reabsorbed, in the proximal tubule mainly in the convoluted and straight seg­ments; in contrast tubular reabsorption does not seem to be present either in the thick ascending tract of Henle limb or in the cortical collecting duct. Citrate proximal tubular reab- sorption involves a sodium dependent dicarboxylate trans­porter that permits the reabsorption across the apical mem­brane where the citrate is reabsorbed mainly as dicarboxylate anion, although the tricarboxylate is the more common form. Furthermore, experimentally in cell culture, a new sodium dependent saturable citrate transport was observed involving a trycarboxylate transporter; in vivo, this trycarboxylate citrate transporter may be located on the basolateral membrane. A rate of 10-35% of the filtered load is excreted in the urine. The citrate reabsorbed from the proximal tubule and a small quota deriving from peritubular vessels contribute to the energy sup­ply of the kidney. In fact this ion, via a complete oxidation in the mitochondrial Krebs cycle, participates in the production of ATP. Another destiny of citrate is cytosolic metabolization into Acetyl-CoA and oxalacetate by means of the enzyme ATP cit­rate lyase. The small intestine presents a citrate transporter similar to the sodium dependent dicarboxylate carrier observed in the proximal renal tubule; at least experimentally, entero- cytes seem to present a secretion mechanism of citrate. Af­ter oral intake of alkaline salts, citrate undergoes intestinal ab­sorption and is metabolized inducing an alkaline load that in­creases the urinary citrate excretion.

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