Characterization of auto-fluorescence urine crystals from gout patients using confocal microscopy and Micro-Raman system for urolithiasis prediction

摘要

The major etiologies of gout and kidney stone formation are similar-hyperuricemia, which is caused by unbalanced uric acid production/exertion. And gout is one of the important risk factors that promotes kidney stone formation. It's worth noting that crystals retention/aggregation is the early stage of stone formation. However, the mechanism between gout and crystalluria remains unclear. Our previous studies found a good correlation between auto-fluorescent crystals and urolithiasis. The higher proportion of auto-fluorescent crystalluria in gout patients was also noted. It this paper, we demonstrated the characterization of auto-fluorescent urinary crystals in gout patients by the customized micro-Raman system and laser confocal microscopy. Our purpose is to figure out the mechanism among gout flare, urolithiasis and auto-fluorescent crystal retention. And the results supported that fluorophore inside the crystals may be a powerful indicator for crystals retention. Further studies are required to validate our hypothesis.