Infrared and Raman Spectra of Calculi

Infrared spectroscopy is known to be one of the best physical methods for the identification and the quantitative analysis of urinary stones and gallstones.

It is simple to use, very fast and needs only a small quantity of matter.

It is also well known that Raman spectroscopy is an excellent method, whether used alone or in complement with the Infrared Method, of achieving the same aim.

The advantages of the Raman method are also its rapidity and the fact that there is no sampling giving an extremely simple experimental procedure.

The main difficulty of recording a Raman spectrum of a biological sample is to be found in the strong fluorescence which can mask the Raman signal.

This fluorescence can be greatly reduced using a Near Infrared Laser - Raman spectrometers.

Numerous stones can now be analysed. The present book is composed of two parts. The first part gives biomedical information of urinary stones and gallstones, following by the analytical Infrared and Raman principles for analysing calculi.

The second part is a Handbook of those Infrared and Raman spectra of gallstones and urinary stones which have been collected in France and other countries up to now. More than 100 chemically different stones, including some artfacts, some pharmaceutical products known for their ability to form calculi, and several binary mixtures commonly observed in calculi are presented in the Handbook.

The Crystal Laboratory of the Hopital Necker is an eminent laboratory specialising in the physico-chemical studies of urinary stones and gallstones for many years.

Numerous stones have been analysed by Infrared spectroscopy by Dr. Michel Daudon and his team since. The PCM laboratory of the Ecole Centrale de Paris is renowned for its expertise in the fields of analytical Raman and IR spectrometry and the NIR-FT Raman spectra of calculi in this Handbook were recorded by Dr. Nguyen Quy Dao and his team.