A proposed method for approximate estimates of the ion-activity products of calcium oxalate and calcium phosphate in spot-urine samples or in urine samples collected during less well defined periods of time.

The purpose of this study is to derive approximate estimates of ion-activity products of CaOx (APCaOx) and CaP (APCaP) useful for spot urine or other less well defined short-term urine collections. In accordance with previously applied and described principles for estimating ion-activity products, the intention was to derive simplified estimates of AP(CaOx)CONC and AP(CaP)CONC by using urine concentrations of the most important determinants of APCaOx and APCaP. A comparison thus was made between estimates derived in that manner and AP(CaOx) index and AP(CaP) index obtained from calculations based on analysis of 24 h urine samples. The best fit between estimates of AP(CaOx) index in 24 h urine and AP(CaOx) indexCONC was obtained with the following formula (r = 0.99; p = 0.0000): [Formula in text] The corresponding formula for AP (CaP) indexCONC was derived from comparison with the corresponding calculations of AP(CaP) index in 24 h urine (r = 0.91; p = 0.0000): [Formula in text] The proposed simplified formulas enable calculation of approximate estimates of APCaOx and APCaP in spot-urine samples or any kind of urine collection for which duration of the collection period is less well known and by using the concentrations (c) of the variables in mmol/L in the two formulas.