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Does the Routine Echocardiographic Exam Have a Role in the Detection and Evaluation of Cholelithiasis and Gallbladder Wall Thickening?
Author(s) -
Daly David D.,
ElShurafa Haytham,
Nanda Navin C.,
Dumaswala Bhavin,
Dumaswala Komal,
Kumar Nilay,
Mutluer Ferit Onur
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
echocardiography
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.404
H-Index - 62
eISSN - 1540-8175
pISSN - 0742-2822
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-8175.2012.01777.x
Subject(s) - medicine , gallbladder , radiology , gallstones , asymptomatic , cholecystitis , ultrasound , perforation , thickening , gallbladder disease , chemistry , materials science , polymer science , metallurgy , punching
Cholelithiasis is a very common disease in the United States. Most cases remain asymptomatic but a fraction of these patients can develop serious complications such as cholecystitis which may lead to gallbladder perforation and gallbladder cancer which is much less common. Here, we present three cases of cholelithiasis where transthoracic echocardiography was performed routinely. In each case, echocardiography detected cholelithiasis which prompted three‐dimensional (3D) echocardiographic evaluation. Three‐dimensional echocardiography allowed for more comprehensive examination of the gallbladder shape, size, and wall thickening and the measurement and composition of the stones in three dimensions, measurement of stone volumes, and minimized shadowing produced by stone calcifications. These cases suggest that routine echocardiography has value in detecting gallstones and that 3D echocardiography has incremental value over two‐dimensional echocardiography due to pyramidal data sets which allow sequential slicing through the gallbladder and full gallbladder examination without a technologist who is trained in gallbladder imaging. These pyramidal data sets can be further viewed and cropped by a radiologist specialized in abdominal ultrasound.