Nephro Flash Vol-6, No-2, 2020

The impact of artificial intelligence (AI) in everyday life can now be felt more resoundingly than ever before. Smartphones use facial recognition algorithms; Siri, Alexa, and Cortana are household names; autonomous cars are driving in streets, and human reigning world champions of strategy games have finally been defeated by computers. What exactly is AI? The father of the field, Mc-Carthy, defines AI as the science and engineering of creating intelligent machines that behave in a way that could be considered intelligent if it was a human being.1 In essence, a computer mimics “intellectual processes characteristic of humans, such as the ability to reason, discover meaning, generalize, or learn from past experience” to achieve goals without being explicitly programmed for specific action.

One in every 11 people develops a renal stone at some point in their life.1 Although nephrolithiasis may occur at any age, onset is more common in young and middle-aged adults. Lifetime prevalence is estimated at 13 percent for men and 7 percent for women. Following an initial stone event, the spontaneous 5-year recurrence rate is 35 to 50 percent.

Nephrolithiasis often is incidentally identified in asymptomatic patients who undergo plain radiographs or computed tomographic imaging for another indication.5 Small stones generally pass through the urinary tract without symptoms. While larger stones may cause symptoms, more than 90 percent of stones less than 5 mm in diameter still pass through the urinary tract without intervention, as compared to spontaneous passage of approximately 50 percent of stones 5 to 10 mm in diameter.