State of acute phase markers and oxidative stress in patients with kidney stones in the urinary tract

Abstract Objective This present study has aimed to assess the state of acute phase markers and oxida-tive stress in patients with kidney stones. Material and methods A prospective study was carried out on 100 patients with kidney stones and 25 healthy controls. Albumin, β2microglobulin, gamma-glutamyl transpepsidase, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), interleukin-1 (IL-1) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) were evaluated as acute phase markers and lipid peroxidation products, superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GPx) levels acted as oxidative stress markers. Results An increase in renal cell damage markers as expressed by the β2microglobulin ( p  = 0.04), albumin ( p  = 0.004), LDH ( p  = 0.001) and Gamma glutamyl trans-pepsidasa ( p  = 0.01) was observed in the patient group. There was a direct correlation between levels of β2microglobulin and stone size ( r  = 0.3, p  = 0.03). The association between stone size and cytokine activation was observed to be stronger in patients with staghorn calculi. In these patients, TNF-α ( p  = 0.011), IL-1 ( p  = 0.004) and IL-6 ( p  = 0.004) were significantly higher. Patients with stones in the urinary tract showed data of significantly higher oxidative stress, expressed as an increase in levels of lipid peroxidation products ( p  = 0.03) and a decrease in the antioxidant activity of SOD ( p  = 0.03) and GPx ( p  = 0.002). Conclusions Patients undergoing urolithiasis showed an elevation of acute phase markers, associated with oxidative stress as expressed by an increase in lipid peroxidation products and a decrease in the antioxidant enzyme activity.