Cholecystosonographic evaluation of the prevalence of gallbladder diseases: A university hospital experience

Abstract

Ninety-five healthy volunteers and 515 patients with problems other than those of the biliary tract were examined using real-time, gray-scale, B-mode ultrasonography. Eighty-two patients (13.44%) were found to have asymptomatic gallbladder disease: 68 (11.14%) had cholelithiasis, 5 (0.81%) had acalculus cholecystitis, and 2 (0.32%) had polyps. Three cases of carcinoma of the gallbladder were also detected, suggesting that ultrasound examination of the high-risk population in an endemic area should not be confined to the disease concerned but that the gall-bladder of such patients should also be screened to pick up asymptomatic gallbladder disease. Hence ultrasound can be used as a screening modality for the early detection of carcinoma of the gallbladder.