The indication of medical treatment of gallbladder stones, such as oral bile acid therapy, extracorporeal shock-wave lithotripsy and methyl tert-butyl ether, is cholesterol gallstone. Then, the radiolucency on simple X-ray or oral cholecystogram
is
now
utilized clinically for the prediction of chemical composition of gallbladder stones. But, I suppose, the radiolucent stone may not indicate the cholesterol stone in Korea, The reasons are that Korea is a prevalent area of pigment gallstones and
calcium
bilirubinate stones often do not reveal calcification on simple X-ray.
In our study, e could observe that 58% of radiolucent gallbladder stones were cholesterol stones and 50% of radiolucent stones revealed calcitication on CT. In conclusion, CT is more sensitive in the detection of calcification compared to simple
X-ray
and CT pattern of gallstone has good correlation to chemical composition. so, I think that it is desirable to utilize the CT for selection of adequate candidates for the medical treatment of gallbldder stones in Korea.
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