Prevalence of Silent Gallstone on Ultrasound Screening

Although cholelithiasis is a common biliary disease, it is little known about its prevalence in asymptomatic population samples.

Real-time ultrasonography was done with 2639 subjects for healthy screening at Ewha Womans University Hospital.

The results were as follows:

1) Among 2639 subjects, the asymptomatic cholelithiasis were found in 88 cases(3.3%).

2) The age ranged from 25 to 87 years. The highest incidence was found in 7th(36.3%) and 6th(29.5%) decades. The prevalence of the male was 3.8%, and female 2.8%. The sex ratio was 1:0.76.

3) Among the 88 cases with gallstones, most of them are single in number(51.1%), and small in size(less than 1.0cm. 55.7%).