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Blood Pressure Drugs Help Kidney Stones Pass

(HealthCentersOnline) - Some types of blood pressure drugs can help kidney and bladder stones pass through the body, sparing many patients from surgery, researchers report.

Kidney and bladder stones are deposits formed when uric acid and other waste products do not dissolve in urine. They can lodge in the urinary tract and cause severe lower back pain, abdominal pain or pelvic pain.

People with diabetes face an increased risk of urinary stones, and many diabetic patients are prescribed blood pressure drugs, called antihypertensives, to lower blood pressure and help prevent or control the kidney disease known as diabetic nephropathy.

Researchers with the University of Michigan Health System report that urinary stone disease affects 13 percent of American men and 7 percent of American women. They reviewed many studies of treatments for urinary stones and analyzed nine trials (involving 693 patients) of calcium channel blockers and alpha blockers. Both are classes of antihypertensives, though alpha blockers are used primarily to improve urinary flow in men who have an enlarged prostate gland, called benign prostatic hyperplasia.

The scientists found that the patients treated with a calcium channel blocker or an alpha blocker were 65 percent more likely than the other patients to expel urinary stones without additional interventions such as shockwave therapy or surgery.

"This suggests that treatment with these medications is an important first step for patients with an acute urinary stone episode," lead researcher Dr. John M. Hollingsworth stated in a news release.

The study was published in The Lancet.

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