Keller, Joseph, Chen, Yi-Kuang, Lin, Herng-Ching · International urogynecology journal · 2013 · DOI
This study looked at whether people with bladder pain syndrome/interstitial cystitis (BPS/IC) are more likely to have had kidney stones or other urinary stones. Researchers compared about 9,000 people newly diagnosed with BPS/IC to over 46,000 similar people without BPS/IC and found that those with BPS/IC were significantly more likely to have a history of urinary stones, particularly bladder stones.
ME/CFS patients frequently experience overlapping conditions including pain syndromes and urological dysfunction. Understanding associations between BPS/IC and urinary calculi may help clinicians recognize clusters of related symptoms and provide more comprehensive care for this complex patient population, while also suggesting shared pathophysiological mechanisms that warrant investigation.
This study demonstrates correlation, not causation—it does not establish whether urinary stones cause BPS/IC, BPS/IC causes stones, or both conditions share an underlying cause. The cross-sectional design cannot determine which condition developed first, and reliance on diagnostic coding may miss cases not formally documented in medical records.
About the PEM badge: “PEM required” means post-exertional malaise was an explicit required diagnostic criterion for participant inclusion in this study — not that PEM was studied, observed, or discussed. Studies using criteria that do not require PEM (e.g. Fukuda, Oxford) are tagged “PEM not required”. How the atlas works →
Spotted an error in this entry? Report it →