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Cholecystosonography in children with sickle cell disease: Technical approach and clinical results
Author(s) -
Cunningham Jerome J.,
Houlihan Stephen M.,
Altay C.
Publication year - 1981
Publication title -
journal of clinical ultrasound
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.272
H-Index - 61
eISSN - 1097-0096
pISSN - 0091-2751
DOI - 10.1002/jcu.1870090506
Subject(s) - medicine , gallstones , sickle cell anemia , gallbladder , deformity , anemia , disease , gallbladder disease , surgery , pediatrics
Forty‐five children with sickle cell anemia were studied with meticulous cholecystosonograms using a 5‐MHz thyroid transducer. Good‐quality images were obtained. The most informative and useful view was the left‐side‐down decubitus study with the ultrasound gantry angled 45% to the anteroposterior axis. Rotating the patient rapidly through 360 degrees did not increase the information content of the examination. We found that one third of a random group of children with sickle cell anemia will have gallstones and one fifth will have “sludge”. A kinked deformity of the gallbladder may simulate a gallstone. Neither age, sex, weight, physical findings (except for hepatomegaly), nor a variety of biochemical measurements of the blood will be of much value in predicting gallbladder disease in any given patient.