Risk factors for the comorbidity of osteoporosis/osteopenia and kidney stones: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Low femoral neck bone mineral density (BMD) was associated with the increased risk of kidney stones. Low dietary magnesium intake and increased serum alkaline phosphatase were associated with the increased risk of low femoral neck BMD in kidney stone formers.

Purpose: To evaluate whether low femoral neck bone mineral density (BMD) was associated with a higher risk of kidney stones, and identify risk factors for the comorbidity of osteoporosis/osteopenia and kidney stones.

Methods: We analyzed individuals aged ≥ 20 years from National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2007-2020 data. Osteoporosis/osteopenia is defined as any T-score < -1.0 of femoral neck, total femoral, and mean lumbar spine (L1-L4) BMD. Dietary intakes (sodium, potassium, magnesium, calcium, phosphorus, calcium/phosphorus, vitamin D (25OHD2+25OHD3)) and serum parameters (sodium, potassium, calcium, phosphorus, bicarbonate, vitamin D, alkaline phosphatase (ALP)) were screened for identifying risk factors for the comorbidity.

Results: The prevalence of comorbidity of osteoporosis/osteopenia and kidney stones was 4.82%. Femoral neck BMD T-score was negatively associated with the prevalence of kidney stones (n=11,864). Dietary magnesium intake, serum phosphorus, and bicarbonate were negatively associated with the comorbidity prevalence, and serum ALP was positively associated with the comorbidity prevalence (n=6978). Additionally, there remain significant associations of dietary magnesium intake, serum ALP, and bicarbonate with not only femoral neck BMD T-score (n=11331), but also the prevalence of kidney stones (n=23,111) in general population. Furthermore, dietary magnesium intake was positively correlated to femoral neck BMD T-score in stone formers (SFs), while serum ALP was negatively correlated to femoral neck BMD T-score in SFs (n=1163).

Conclusion: Low femoral neck BMD was closely associated with an increased risk of kidney stones. Low magnesium intake and increased serum ALP were associated with the increased risk of the comorbidity, as well as indicative of low femoral neck BMD T-score in SFs, which offered a clue to further clarify the mechanism leading to paradoxical calcification of bone resorption and kidney stones, and had the potential to perform personalized diagnostic workup for low BMD in SFs.

Keywords: Alkaline phosphatase; Bone mineral density; Kidney stones; Magnesium intake.