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. 2026 Feb 12;54(1):50. doi: 10.1007/s00240-026-01950-1

Table 2.

Baseline characteristics of patients presenting to the emergency department (ED) with renal colic and CT-confirmed ureteral stones, stratified by stone size and management. Continuous variables are presented as median with interquartile range (IQR), categorical variables as n (%). N indicates the number of patients with available data for the respective variable. Bold values indicate statistical significance at p < 0.05. Abbreviations: BMI: body mass index. HU: Hounsfield units. IQR: interquartile range. 1Median (Q1, Q3); n (%). 2Wilcoxon rank sum test; pearson’s Chi-squared test; fisher’s exact test

Characteristics N Maximum ureteral stone size <6 mm N Maximum ureteral stone size ≥6 mm
Discharge
N = 4141
Inpatient admission and intervention
N = 1001
p-value2 Discharge
N = 1071
Inpatient admission and intervention
N = 1311
p-value2
Age [years] 514 44.5 (33.0, 56.0) 49.0 (37.0, 60.0) 0.066 238 49.0 (41.0, 57.0) 53.0 (41.0, 65.0) 0.07
BMI [kg/m2] 164 26.3 (23.2, 29.6) 26.7 (23.5, 30.8) 0.8 164 26.9 (24.4, 31.4) 26.3 (23.7, 30.1) 0.4
Sex 513 0.7 238 0.15
Female 103 (25%) 23 (23%) 23 (21%) 39 (30%)
Male 310 (75%) 77 (77%) 84 (79%) 92 (70%)
Arrival at the ED 347 > 0.9 158 0.1
By ambulance 142 (52%) 40 (53%) 30 (42%) 47 (55%)
Independently 129 (48%) 36 (47%) 42 (58%) 39 (45%)
Diabetes mellitus 462 27 (7.4%) 6 (6.3%) 0.7 221 8 (8.5%) 15 (12%) 0.4
Pain character 412 0.1 175 0.018
Colicky 283 (84%) 59 (77%) 67 (83%) 63 (67%)
Constant 52 (16%) 18 (23%) 14 (17%) 31 (33%)
Pain duration [h] 386 5.0 (3.0, 20.0) 11.0 (5.0, 72.0) < 0.001 168 11.0 (4.0, 48.0) 10.0 (4.0, 36.0) 0.7
Nausea 271 114 (52%) 34 (64%) 0.12 106 23 (55%) 40 (63%) 0.4
Vomiting 269 81 (37%) 23 (46%) 0.2 102 11 (27%) 32 (52%) 0.01
Fever 360 5 (1.7%) 3 (4.6%) 0.2 157 2 (2.7%) 6 (7.2%) 0.3
Macrohematuria 255 26 (12%) 2 (4.5%) 0.2 110 10 (21%) 8 (13%) 0.2
Analgesia before ED presentation 514 390 (94%) 94 (94%) > 0.9 238 100 (93%) 122 (93%) > 0.9
History of stones 278 104 (47%) 32 (57%) 0.2 126 35 (61%) 47 (68%) 0.4
Systolic blood pressure on admission [mmHg] 395 147.0 (137.0, 160.0) 147.0 (133.0, 165.0) 0.6 163 150.5 (136.0, 163.0) 149.0 (134.0, 165.0) 0.8
Diastolic blood pressure on admission [mmHg] 394 89.0 (81.0, 99.0) 89.0 (80.0, 99.0) 0.7 163 89.5 (80.0, 98.0) 88.0 (78.0, 98.0) 0.4
Heart rate on admission [bpm] 391 76.0 (67.0, 87.0) 75.0 (67.0, 83.0) > 0.9 158 76.0 (65.0, 86.0) 76.0 (68.0, 86.0) 0.8
Temperature on admission [°C] 369 36.6 (36.3, 36.9) 36.7 (36.3, 37.0) 0.1 161 36.7 (36.4, 37.0) 36.6 (36.3, 37.0) > 0.9
Respiratory rate on admission 184 14.0 (14.0, 16.0) 15.0 (14.0, 16.0) 0.079 79 14.0 (14.0, 16.0) 14.0 (14.0, 16.0) 0.9
Creatinine [mg/dl] 514 1.0 (0.9, 1.2) 1.2 (1.0, 1.4) < 0.001 235 1.0 (0.9, 1.2) 1.1 (1.0, 1.4) 0.002
eGFR [ml/min] 508 84.0 (69.0, 100.0) 71.5 (56.0, 95.0) < 0.001 235 81.0 (68.0, 94.0) 69.0 (49.0, 87.0) < 0.001
CRP [mg/dl] 443 0.2 (0.1, 0.4) 0.3 (0.1, 1.4) < 0.001 204 0.4 (0.1, 0.9) 0.3 (0.2, 1.8) 0.5
Leukocytes [G/l] 513 9.5 (7.6, 11.9) 10.9 (7.8, 13.6) 0.012 235 9.8 (7.9, 11.5) 10.6 (8.2, 12.6) 0.05
Urine: Nitrite positive 514 9 (2%) 5 (5.0%) 0.032 238 5 (5%) 11 (8%) 0.5
Urine: Leukocyturia 514 194 (47%) 38 (38%) 0.11 238 51 (48%) 74 (56%) 0.2
Urine: Microhematuria 514 334 (81%) 69 (69%) 0.011 238 90 (84%) 99 (76%) 0.11
Urine: Bacteriuria 514 386 (93%) 93 (93%) > 0.9 238 98 (92%) 125 (95%) 0.2
Urine culture positive 146 3 (3.3%) 5 (9.3%) 0.15 87 2 (7.1%) 10 (17%) 0.3
Location of symptomatic stone 506 0.6 236 < 0.001
Proximal 73 (18%) 20 (20%) 38 (36%) 72 (55%)
Mid ureter 50 (12%) 15 (15%) 14 (13%) 25 (19%)
Distal 283 (70%) 65 (65%) 53 (50%) 34 (26%)
Largest ureteral stone diameter [mm] 514 4.0 (3.1, 4.7) 4.5 (3.3, 5.1) 0.002 238 6.8 (6.3, 8.1) 8.4 (7.1, 10.2) < 0.001
Mean HU 497 434.7 (323.0, 570.0) 464.9 (341.8, 686.5) 0.067 238 753.5 (554.3, 882.1) 914.0 (681.4, 1,138.4) < 0.001
Hydronephrosis 514 352 (85%) 91 (91%) 0.12 238 91 (85%) 124 (95%) 0.013
ED treatment duration [h] 509 4.0 (3.0, 6.0) 4.0 (3.0, 5.0) 0.2 234 4.0 (3.0, 5.0) 4.0 (3.0, 6.0) 0.1