Fred K. Garvey

The metal chelate compounds of urine; their relation to the initiation and growth of calculi.

Abstract Considerable evidence has accumulated which would indicate that the organic matrix of urinary calculi plays an active part in the local concentration and precipitation of calcium. This metal is the principal cationic unit in the crystalline structure of more than 90 per cent of all urinary concretions. It is suggested that the abnormal (activated) mucoproteins of urine 5 chelate calcium from solution to form relatively insoluble micelles 13 of colloidal calcium-mucoprotein units. This is the initial step in calcigerous stone formation and is followed by crystallization within the meshes of the mucoprotein micella. These same mucoproteins, forming a surface layer, may produce a local concentration of calcium on the surface of the growing concretion. They may even serve as an organic template to facilitate the spatial arrangement of calcium and hydroxyl ions 17 in the growth of the apatite lattice. 22