Journal of the American College of Nutrition, Vol 8, Issue 6 557-566, Copyright © 1989 by American College of Nutrition

JOURNAL ARTICLE

Blood levels of glucometabolic hormones and urinary saturation with stone forming phases after an oral test meal in male patients with recurrent idiopathic calcium urolithiasis and in healthy controls

P. O. Schwille, G. Rumenapf and R. Kohler
Department of Surgery, University of Erlangen, Federal Republic of Germany.

Male patients with recurrent calcium (Ca) urolithiasis (RCU) with idiopathic hypercalciuria (I-HC, n = 12) or normocalciuria (NC, n = 12), and age, sex, and weight-matched controls (C, n = 12) were evaluated before and after a carbohydrate-rich synthetic meal for blood glucose, free fatty acids (FFA), alpha-amino-nitrogen, several glucometabolic hormones and parathyroid hormone (PTH), and urine Ca, phosphate, oxalate, and cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) levels as well as saturation. Fasting serum Ca was significantly higher and PTH significantly lower in I-HC than in controls, whereas in fasting urine cAMP and phosphate were unchanged. There were only minor differences between fasting blood glucose levels and postprandial glucose tolerance of RCU patients and controls. However, serum insulin was significantly elevated in I-HC versus C, but serum C-peptide, plasma glucagon, and somatostatin levels were comparable in RCU and C. FFA were significantly lower in RCU than C. Postprandial phosphaturia and urinary saturation with Ca-phosphates were significantly higher in RCU versus C, whereas urinary cAMP, pH, and oxalate were similar. We conclude that: (1) in RCU patients some postabsorptive steps in glucose metabolism may be abnormal; (2) those with I-HC have enhanced postprandial Ca and phosphate excretion concomitantly with disordered insulin metabolism; and (3) RCU patients may suffer from a postprandial renal phosphate leak, which may make their urine more lithogenic.