Heart disease is significantly more prevalent in older white women with a history of kidney stones than in those who have never had a kidney stone, new findings suggest.
Brian H. Eisner, MD, a clinical fellow in the department of urology at the University of California in San Francisco, and collaborators examined data from 9,704 primarily white women (mean age, 71.6 years) participating in the Study of Osteoporotic Fractures.
Compared with women who did not have a history of kidney stones, those who did had an 80% increased risk of myocardial infarction, 60% increased risk of angina, and a twofold increased risk of congestive heart failure, after adjusting for diabetes mellitus, BMI, waist circumference, hypertension, and other potential confounders. Cardiovascular mortality was not significantly associated with kidney stone history.
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“This evidence supports the hypothesis that there may be a common systemic pathway linking vascular pathology and urinary stone disease,” the authors concluded in a meeting poster.
