Dissolution of Kidney Stones; Nano and Micro Morphologies Developed During Remelting

Abstract

We have synthesized calcium oxide and calcium oxalate based kidney stones and investigated remelting to understand the process of dissolution. The dissolution morphology and remelting process in water was observed for the pure and intensely impurity doped oxalateurate stones grown at lower pH to study effect of acidity, and pH near actual pH of the stomach. Direct observation showed different melting morphologies. We observed needles, plates, dendrites, and lamella depending on the pH level and impurities. Remelting studies indicated that during breaking of large polycrystalline bunched stones grown at lower pH break into faceted small crystals which dissolve into the solvent depending on the acidity pH and impurities. High purity stones grown near stomach pH (6.4-7.5) tends to grow in needles morphology which dissolve slowly and fragment into smaller needles. A comparison was made with real kidney stones observed at Herring laboratory and similarity was observed with impurity doped stones. There was significant difference in decomposition of pure and impurity doped stones. Thermal analysis (DTA) showed that sugar doped oxides decompose continuously.