The Tokai journal of experimental and clinical medicine
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Hypocitraturia, or low urinary citrate excretion is known as a risk for nephrolithiasis. Though urinary citrate excretion is basically determined by acid-base balance, metabolic acidosis is not always manifest in urinary stone patients with hypocitraturia. From our stone clinic data, we estimated the incidence of hypocitraturia and addressed its causes in the absence of obvious acid-base imbalance. ⋯ It was suggested that defective gastrointestinal alkali absorption may be involved in hypocitraturia of calcium stone patients.