Hello! I have been a doctor for 21 years. My name is Georgy Olegovich Sapego. In this article, I will talk about struvite kidney stones.
There are stones in the kidneys. One of the varieties of these stones is called struvite. Struvites can grow very quickly. Sometimes in a few months or even weeks, such a stone fills all the cavities inside the kidney. It turns out a cast that looks like a deer horn or coral. It is clear that such a spiked thing will not come out of the kidney by itself. So the stone is very serious.
Struvite is a compound of ammonium with magnesium and phosphorus. For the first time such an interesting mineral was dug up in some medieval sewer in Germany.
To make struvite, you need a lot of ammonium and additional alkali. Alkali causes the phosphate dissolved in the urine to precipitate.
Ureaza
Struvite usually occurs with kidney infections. Some microbes like Proteus and Klebsiella can make ammonium from urea. We have already discussed Klebsiella in the story about abscesses in the liver. You can watch this article at the link below. So microbes are armed with the enzyme urease. This urease breaks down urea to form ammonia.
Most often, they say about urease when people are examined for Helicobacter pylori infection in the stomach. Those same gastric helicobacters also make ammonia. It behaves like an alkali in water and neutralizes corrosive stomach acid. Helicobacters just need this. There is little acid, and microbes are comfortable.
In fact, this reaction with the decomposition of urea is carried out by many people in a lie while chewing gum with urea. Urea is urea. The microbes in plaque eat sugar and make acid, which can damage teeth. But if you slip urea into microbes, they will make ammonia out of it, which instantly neutralizes the acid. A very elegant solution.
And any infection in the kidneys also makes ammonia. At the same time, the water will contain both alkali and ammonium. These are ideal conditions for building struvite stone.
Kidney infections are more common in women, so struvite stones are three times more likely to be found in them.
Struvite stones usually have a complex composition. There are also calcium compounds.
Very often, a kidney infection happens to people who lie motionless for a long time and cannot take care of themselves. In them, from a stationary state, bones are slowly dissolving, and the resulting calcium is excreted in the urine and precipitated there. It turns out a double joy - a urinary infection and a lot of calcium.
Microbes from such stones build themselves a real fortress. Can you imagine all the drama of the situation? In the kidney, not only a hefty spiked stone grows, but it is also stuffed with infection. Such a stone scrapes a kidney, and a whole army of microbes is waiting nearby, which will crawl into these scratches.
We can say that the infection makes itself a sharp instrument. Roughly like primitive man made the first stone ax.
As it will be
Struvite stones do not show themselves in anything special. There will be signs of an infection in the kidneys, it may hurt the side, or there may be blood in the urine. Struvite crystals are not always found in analyzes, but urine itself is usually very alkaline.
Interestingly, even if you manage to pick out a piece of such a stone, struvite is not always found in the laboratory. This is all due to the mixed stones, which have a complex composition.
So, if kidney stones are suspected of any patient with a catheter in the bladder and on bed rest, they will be quickly examined.
Be sure to consult with your doctor about all similar issues.
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Why cystitis recurs
Klebsiella and the liver
