Mayo Clinic Creates Online Tool That Predicts Kidney Stones

Have you had kidney stones before? These issues are not a one time deal as they can happen again, but if you’d like to possibly get ahead of the problem, not to worry because the folks at the Mayo Clinic have developed an online tool that has the ability to predict whether or not you might be at risk of getting kidney stones again.

Originally developed back in 2014, this model is what the researchers are calling the Recurrence of Kidney Stone (ROKS) model. It factors in a variety of information about the patient to determine if they might be at risk of it developing again. The model has evolved over the years, where it has improved from being able to predict a second stone occurrence, to being able to predict the odds of stones being a recurring problem.

The information that the model is based on is from 3,000 first-time kidney stone patients who were treated at the Mayo Clinic. Based on this information, the researchers found several factors that might result in the stone recurring again, such as age, gender, weight, and so on. However based on tests, the model scored a 0.681 on the C-index which isn’t that promising since a score of 0.7 is said to be indicative of a good model, while a score of 0.5 is essentially the same as chance.

However the tool is online and available for your usage if you are curious since getting ahead of the problem could help you better prepare for it.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Medical
Tags: Health