Urolithiasis And Smoking

Background: Urolithiasis and smoking are common pathologies in society. We tried to understand whether or not there is a significant relationship in between.Methods: Consecutive patients with urolithiasis were collected into the first, and age and sex-matched controls were collected into the second, groups.Results: Fifty-one patients with urolithiasis and 66 controls were studied, in total. When we looked at the urolithiasis patients, 56.8% of them (29 patients) were female with a mean age of 47.2 +/- 12.7 (22-70) years. Interestingly, although the lower prevalence of smoking in females in the population, the prevalence of smoking was significantly higher in the urolithiasis group, here (45.0% versus 30.3%, p< 0.05). On the other hand, there was non-significant difference according to the mean body weight between the groups (77.3 versus 76.4 kg, p> 0.05).Conclusion: Several toxic substances found in cigarette smoke get into the circulation by means of the respiratory tract, and cause a low-grade vascular endothelial inflammation all over the body including the gastrointestinal and urinary tracts. The low-grade vascular endothelial inflammation eventually terminates with an accelerated atherosclerosis and relative immunosuppression. The prolonged vascular endothelial inflammation, accelerated atherosclerosis, relative immunosuppression, and sympathetic nervous system activation may induce motility, absorption, and infectious problems in the gastrointestinal and urinary tracts; those may terminate with urolithiasis in smokers.