Diabetes 'risk' in kidney therapy.

Byline: BY JANE KIRBY Daily Post Correspondent

PEOPLE given a common treatment for kidney stones could be up to four times more likely to develop diabetes, experts said yesterday.

Shock wave therapy, also known as lithotripsy, uses sound waves to break down smaller kidney stones, allowing the particles to pass harmlessly out of the body through urine.

Now scientists in the US say they have discovered a "strong" link between the treatment and diabetes and high blood pressure.

They found that those given lithotripsy were almost four times more likely to develop diabetes, compared to those given other treatments.

Patients were also up to twice as likely to develop high blood pressure as those who did not have lithotripsy.

The researchers, from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, said an increased diabetes risk was in part due to the number of shocks that form the treatment.

They believe the shocks pass through the pancreas, damaging its insulin-producing cells.

They also predict that the treatment can lead to possible scarring of the kidneys, which affects the secretion of hormones that influence blood pressure.

"This is a completely new finding," said Dr Amy Krambeck from the Mayo Clinic, who led the study.

"This opens the eyes of the world of urology to the fact that hypertension and diabetes are potential side effects."

The researchers noted that the results related to a 1985 lithotriptor and that more research was needed on newer machines and different models.

Dr Krambeck said: "We can't say with 100% certainty that shock wave treatment for kidney stones causes diabetes and hypertension, but the association is very strong."

The study involved examining charts of 630 patients treated with shock wave lithotripsy at the Mayo Clinic in 1985.

The researchers sent a questionnaire and almost 60% of patients responded.

They found that, 19 years on, those treated with lithotripsy were 3.75 times more likely to have developed diabetes, compared to those given a different treatment.

Joseph Segura, urologist at the clinic and who took part in the study, said patients should be warned of the risk but that lithotripsy was still a valuable treatment and should not be shelved.

Research shows shock waves damage insulin cells