Kidney stones may increase the risk of coronary heart disease and stroke: A PRISMA-Compliant meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: We aimed to quantitatively assess the potential relationship between kidney stones and coronary heart disease or stroke. METHODS: A meta-analysis was conducted on eligibly studies published before 31 May 2016 in PubMed or Embase. The data were pooled, and the relationship was assessed by the random-effect model with inverse variance-weighted procedure. The results were expressed as relative risk (RR) with 95% confidence intervals (95%CI). RESULTS: Eight studies of 11 cohorts (n = 11) were included in our analysis with 3,658,360 participants and 157,037 cases. We found that a history of kidney stones was associated with increased risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) (RR = 1.24; 95%CI: 1.14–1.36; I(2) = 79.0%, n = 11); similar effect on myocardial infarction, a serious condition of CHD, was observed (RR = 1.24; 95%CI: 1.10–1.40; I(2) = 80.4%, n = 8). We also found that a history of kidney stones may increase the risk of stroke (RR = 1.21, 95%CI: 1.06–1.38; I(2) = 54.7%, n = 4). In subgroup analysis, the risk of coronary heart disease was higher in men (RR = 1.23, 95%CI: 1.02–1.49) while the risk for stroke was higher in women (RR = 1.12; 95%CI: 1.03–1.21). No obvious publications bias was detected (Egger test: P = .47). CONCLUSION: Kidney stones are associated with increased risk of coronary heart disease and stroke, and the effect may differ by sex.