Study of the Crystallization Inhibition Capacity of the Uric Acid in Urine in a Group of Lithiasic Patients After Intake of a Food Supplement

Renal lithiasis affects a wide range of the population, ranging from 4 to 15% according to the population sample studied. Among all stones, it is estimated that uric stones account for between 10 and 15% of all cases and especially affects men over 50 years, while mixed lithiasis of calcium oxalate monohydrate and uric acid affects a 2.5% of all cases. Lithiasis generated by uric acid is a highly recurrent pathology, even repeating itself several times during the year, and is related to other pathologies such as diabetes and obesity. It is evident that the medical problem that lithiasis originates should not be treated only by eliminating the calculus formed, through the different surgical techniques available, but also that the alterations responsible for its formation should be modified and corrected. If these alterations are not modified, the risk of the genesis of new calculations persists. The pharmacological treatments used until now to treat uric lithiasis are based on the powerful alkalinization of the urine (through the use of citrate or bicarbonate); These treatments tend to have a low rate of adherence and, taken long term, can cause the development of stones of another composition (eg, Phosphate), which are much more difficult to treat. There are natural substances, such as theobromine (natural component of cocoa) that has been found to have the ability to inhibit the formation of uric acid crystals: this substance has been tested in laboratory experiments and therefore would be useful to prevent the formation of uric acid stones and / or mixed calcium oxalate monohydrate / uric acid stones. Theobromine corresponds to a phytocomponent alkaloid that is found in high concentrations in chocolate. The starting hypothesis of this study corresponds to the possible increase in the capacity of inhibition of the crystallization of uric acid by urine in subjects who have ingested food or food supplements containing cocoa or cocoa extract. Therefore, the relation