Metabolic Syndrome and the Risk of Kidney Stones: a Large-scale Cohort Study from 487,860 UK Biobank participants

Minghui Liu; Meng Gao; Jian Wu; Zewu Zhu; Jiao Hu; Hequn Chen; Zhiyong Chen; Jinbo Chen

doi:10.1210/clinem/dgae295

Metabolic Syndrome and the Risk of Kidney Stones: a Large-scale Cohort Study from 487,860 UK Biobank participants

J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2024 May 3:dgae295. doi: 10.1210/clinem/dgae295. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Minghui Liu^{1

2}, Meng Gao^{1

2}, Jian Wu^{1

2}, Zewu Zhu^{1

2

3}, Jiao Hu^{1

2}, Hequn Chen^{1

2}, Zhiyong Chen^{1

2}, Jinbo Chen^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Urology, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, 410008, China.
² National Clinical Research Center for Geriatric Disorders, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, China.
³ Department of Internal Medicine, Section Endocrinology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA.

PMID: 38701346
DOI: 10.1210/clinem/dgae295

Abstract

Objective: While some studies have suggested an association between metabolic syndrome and kidney stones, the quality and level of evidence in these studies vary. Whether some individual characteristics and clustering of metabolic syndrome traits increase the risk of kidney stones has not been examined in a large-scale prospective cohort.

Materials: We conducted a retrospective analysis of data from a prospective cohort of 487,860 UK Biobank participants who were free from kidney stones at baseline. The presence of metabolic syndrome was based on five criteria: abdominal obesity, high triglyceride levels, low high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol levels, high blood pressure (HBP), and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to evaluate the association between metabolic syndrome and risk of kidney stones.

Results: After an average follow-up period of 12.6 years, a total of 5,213 of the 487,860 participants included in the UK Biobank study developed kidney stones. The partial traits of metabolic syndrome, including waist circumference (HR: 1.15, 95% CI: 1.10-1.20), HDL cholesterol (0.66, 0.55-0.79), HBP (1.11, 1.03-1.19) and T2DM (1.14, 1.04-1.21), were independently associated with the occurrence of kidney stones. The clustering of metabolic syndrome is significantly associated with kidney stone formation, and as the number of metabolic syndrome traits increases, the risk of kidney stones gradually increases.

Conclusion: Metabolic syndrome is a significant and independent risk factor for the development of kidney stones. This association suggests that kidney stones may represent a systemic disorder influenced by the interplay of various metabolic risk factors.

Keywords: Kidney stones; UK Biobank; high blood pressure; high-density lipoprotein cholesterol; metabolic syndrome; obesity; type 2 diabetes mellitus.

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