MICROALBUMINURIA BEFORE AND ONE MONTH AFT ER EXTRACORPOREAL LITHOTRITY - 1ST RESULTS

Extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy represents extraordinary progres s for the treatment of urinary calculi. The apparent aggressivity of t his technique leads to investigating whether it may have an impact on the renal parenchyma, as was suggested by many works, especially with radionuclide explorations. Microalbumin assays before and about one mo nth after lithotripsy show an iatrogenic pathological increase in leve ls in some cases, especially after long, intensive sessions of treatme nt, whether the lithotriter used was of the shock-wave or piezoelectri c-wave type. When lithotrity was performed with a piezoelectric-wave d evice, the increase in microalbumin is related to the << cumulative >> factor, which is in turn related to the power, frequency (per second) and length of shots. More extensive investigations and, most importan tly, investigations over a longer period are necessary to confirm or i nvalidate the results of this first study, to establish the frequency of cases where this abnormality appears, whether it can last long, and how far it can be predictive of the parenchymal lesions and of their long-term impact.