Early diagnosis of urinary lithiasis via elementary profile of serum samples

Abstract

An elemental analysis method was established to monitor the element levels in serum samples of 38 healthy controls and 38 stone patients. Based on the optimized platform combined with multivariate analysis, satisfactory results can be obtained for urinary lithiasis diagnosis with the concentrations of 9 elements, in which Ba, Ga, Sb, and Na are the top 4 elements of statistical significance. The patients could be subdivided into calcareous and non-calcareous stone patients by metallomic profiling; and it is found that Se plays the major role in this classification. This study indicates that serum elementary analysis gives an insight into the possibility of diagnosis of urinary lithiasis, subsequently it may allow estimation of the content subtype of stones. By means of this simple method of elemental profiling in serum, it might allow early prognosis and treatment guide to urinary lithiasis.