Affiliations: Dip. Scienze Mediche e Chirurgiche, Università
degli Studi di Padova, Padova, Italy | Laboratory Environmental and Medical Geology of
IMAA-CNR – C.da Santa Loja, Tito scalo (Pz), Italy | Istituto di Geoscienze e Georisorse – CNR, c/o
Dipartimento di Geoscienze Università di Padova, Padova, Italy
Note: [] Corresponding author: Vito Summa, Laboratory Environmental and
Medical Geology of IMAA-CNR – C.da Santa Loja, Tito scalo (Pz), Italy. Tel.:
+39 09 7142 7251; Fax: +39 09 7142 7307; E-mail: [email protected]
Abstract: The qualitative and quantitative analyses of crystalluria have
clinical significance in the diagnosis and prognosis of urolithiasis. The aim
of this paper is to provide a new accurate methodology to get qualitative and
quantitative data on urine particulate in patients with renal stone disease. The procedure involves a urine collection, the separation of the solid residual
by centrifugation, and its analysis by X-ray diffraction, utilizing a
micro-diffractometer in order to analyze very low amounts of residual. The spectrum obtained was converted into 2 � –I profiles
and quantitatively refined by Rietveld method. The proposed methodology has the advantage to accurately quantify all crystalline phases and the amorphous
component of the urine; anyway urine samples have to be centrifuged and
analysed as soon as possible, because the quantitative results obtained by the
X-ray microdiffraction showed that after some days and at room temperature
urine increased significantly both amorphous and crystalline phases.
