struvite and Foreign-Bodies

In March 2006, a dead, male bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) was found in the salt marsh in Charleston, South Carolina, United States. During necropsy, an enterolith was found completely obstructing the intestinal lumen. Further examination of the enterolith revealed a stingray spine nidus. Most terrestrial enteroliths are composed primarily of struvite (magnesium ammonium phosphate); however, the majority of the enterolith discovered in the stranded dolphin was composed of calcium phosphate carbonate. This case provides an interesting comparison of the variation in the mineral composition between terrestrial and marine enteroliths.

Topics: Animals; Bottle-Nosed Dolphin; Fatal Outcome; Foreign Bodies; Intestinal Obstruction; Magnesium Compounds; Male; Phosphates; Skates, Fish; Struvite

The fresh juice of Musa stem (Puttubale) was tested for its antilithiatic activity. Zinc discs were implanted in the urinary bladder of albino rats to induce urolithiasis. The stones formed were mainly of magnesium ammonium phosphate with traces of calcium oxalate. Musa stem juice (3 mL/rat/day orally) was found to be effective in reducing the formation and also in dissolving the pre-formed stones.

Topics: Administration, Oral; Animals; Calcium Oxalate; Female; Foreign Bodies; Magnesium Compounds; Male; Phosphates; Plants, Medicinal; Rats; Rats, Wistar; Struvite; Urinary Bladder Calculi; Zinc

Urine of male Sprague-Dawley rats was supersaturated for struvite and often contained struvite crystals. Ethylene glycol administration to these rats resulted in elevation of urinary oxalate and calcium oxalate supersaturation, and induced calcium oxalate crystalluria. Implantation of foreign bodies in their urinary bladders and changing their urinary ambient conditions by administering ethylene glycol for two weeks at two week intervals resulted in the formation of urinary stones of mixed composition containing calcium oxalate and struvite. Crystal-onto-crystal epitaxy did not appear to play any role in the development of these stones.

Topics: Animals; Calcium Oxalate; Crystallization; Ethylene Glycol; Ethylene Glycols; Foreign Bodies; Foreign-Body Reaction; Magnesium; Magnesium Compounds; Male; Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; Phosphates; Rats; Rats, Inbred Strains; Struvite; Time Factors; Urinary Bladder; Urinary Bladder Calculi

A newly designed urolithiasis model for rats, inducing a mild urinary tract infection, exhibiting reduced renal damage without pyelonephritis and causing reliable stone formation, was established. This was accomplished by implanting a zinc disc in the bladder and then performing transvesical inoculation of Proteus mirabilis into the bladder. Five days after challenge with 10(7) colony forming units (CFU) of P. mirabilis in each rat, the number of organisms in the bladder urine reached a level of over 10(5) colony forming units per ml. The infection was mostly restricted to the urinary tract organs. Infectious bladder stones were formed 5 days after infection and developed day by day, weighing 88.3 +/- 18.8 mg. on the 21st day. Blood urea nitrogen values stayed in the normal range in all test animals during this experiment. The main composition of the stones formed was shown to be struvite (MgNH4PO4 X 6H2O).

Topics: Animals; Female; Foreign Bodies; Magnesium; Magnesium Compounds; Phosphates; Proteus Infections; Proteus mirabilis; Rats; Rats, Inbred Strains; Struvite; Time Factors; Urinary Bladder; Urinary Bladder Calculi; Urinary Tract Infections; Zinc