Whenever a patient develops a kidney stone for the first time,

his or her doctor should do 24 hr urine collection to measure the amount of

calcium excreted per 24 hrs in order to rule out hypercalciuria, idiopathic,

which can be corrected easily to prevent the recurrence of the kidney stone,

as illustrated and demonstrated in these two articles.

The other condition that needs to be ruled out is primary hyperparathyroidism,

which can be done by a simple blood test.

Of course other rare causes need to be ruled out as well.

Too often doctors neglect to do these and too many patients suffer recurrence of

kidney stones. So many doctors just tell their patients to drink lots of water and stop there.

The following are the most common types of clinically significant hypercalciuria:

• Absorptive hypercalciuria.
• Renal phosphate leak hypercalciuria (also known as absorptive hypercalciuria type III)
• Renal leak hypercalciuria.
• Resorptive hypercalciuria - This is almost always caused by hyperparathyroidism.

The major subtypes have included 1) 'absorptive' hypercalciuria in which a primary increase in intestinal calcium absorption may result in increased urine calcium; 2) 'resorptive' hypercalciuria, caused by an increase in bone turnover, leading to loss of bone calcium in the urine; and 3) 'renal leak' hypercalciuria, in ...(from Internet)