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 →
The first block is for the primary paper and is the citation you should use in research work. The atlas-snapshot line only applies if you are specifically referring to this atlas’s reading of the paper on the date shown.
Primary citation
Keller, Joseph, Chen, Yi-Kuang, & Lin, Herng-Ching (2013). Association of bladder pain syndrome/interstitial cystitis with urinary calculus: a nationwide population-based study.. International urogynecology journal. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00192-012-1917-6
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-keller-2013-association-bladder,
author = {Keller, Joseph and Chen, Yi-Kuang and Lin, Herng-Ching},
title = {Association of bladder pain syndrome/interstitial cystitis with urinary calculus: a nationwide population-based study.},
journal = {International urogynecology journal},
year = {2013},
doi = {10.1007/s00192-012-1917-6},
note = {PubMed: 22895546},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/keller-2013-association-bladder},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-30. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/keller-2013-association-bladder
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