The elementome of calcium-based urinary stones and its role in urolithiasis

Key Points The majority of human urinary stones are primarily composed of crystalline calcium salts but many other metals and nonmetals are detectable with concentrations ranging over 10 orders of magnitude The contribution of elements other than calcium to the formation, recurrence or physical properties of human urinary stones is generally poorly defined Over the past 50 years, 20–30 studies of elemental stone content have been published and their findings can be summarized to produce a working elementome of the human calcium-based urinary stone The amount of some elements within human calcium-based urinary stones does not correlate with their normal urinary concentrations, suggesting that accumulation or other processes affect the elemental composition of stones Further refinement of the elementome of calcium-based urinary stones is warranted because it is likely to reveal novel opportunities for monitoring lithogenesis and new targets for therapeutic intervention