Urinary excretion of calcium, magnesium, oxalate and citrate in duodenal ulcer patients. Preliminary results before and up to five years after highly selective vagotomy.

The urinary excretion of calcium, oxalate, citrate and magnesium, and the relative saturation products in urine of either calcium oxalate or calcium phosphate, were determined in male duodenal ulcer (DU) patients preoperatively (n = 60), and 1 and 5 years following highly selective vagotomy (HSV), and in male healthy controls (n = 30). In DU before HSV citrate and magnesium were lowered, oxalate was in the low normal range and calcium was normal. The calcium oxalate product was lower than in controls, while the calcium phosphate product was unchanged. Within 5 years HSV normalized urinary citrate and oxalate, but not urinary magnesium, and the median urinary pH was lower than pre-operatively. There thus results a normal product for calcium oxalate, but a reduced one for calcium phosphate. It is suggested that: (1) unoperated DU patients have a urine composition similar to that exhibited in normocalciuric recurrent calcium urolithiasis; (2) this spectrum of urinary constituents may be changed by HSV.