Association Between History Of Kidney Stones And Chronic Kidney Disease: A Meta-analysis

Objective: Although relationship between history of kidney stones and chronic kidney disease(CKD) has been explored in many studies, it is still far from being well understood.Thus, we conducted a meta-analysis of studies comparing rates of CKD in patients with history of nephrolithiasis.Methods: Pub Med, EMBASE, CNKI, and the reference lists of relevant articles were searched to identify observational studies related to the topic. The random-effect model was used to combine the study-specific risk estimates. We explored the potential heterogeneity by subgroup analyses and meta-regression analyses.Results: Seven studies(n=2,810,233 participants) were included in this meta-analysis.Pooled results suggested that kidney stones history was associated with an increased adjusted risk estimate for CKD [relative risk(RR), 1.49; 95% confidence interval(CI),1.22-1.80)], with significant heterogeneity among these studies(I2 = 94.3%, P<0.001). In subgroup analyses, the association was greater among group within studies including non-Asian countries, the mean age <50 years, female patients, adjusted odds ratio(OR)estimates, and good quality. Whereas the association was not significant among studies with Asian countries, the mean age ≥ 50 years and male patients. Sensitivity analysis further demonstrated results to be robust.Conclusions: Kidney stones history is associated with increased risk of CKD. Future investigations are encouraged to reveal the underlying mechanisms in the connection between kidney stones and CKD, which may point the way to more effective preventive and therapeutic measures.