The Need for Standardizing Diagnosis, Treatment and Clinical Care of Cholecystitis and Biliary Colic in Gallbladder Disease

Gallstones affect 20% of the Western population and will grow in clinical significance as obesity and metabolic diseases become more prevalent. Gallbladder removal (cholecystectomy) is a common treatment for diseases caused by gallstones, with 1.2 million surgeries in the US each year, each costing USD 10,000. Gallbladder disease has a significant impact on the logistics and economics of healthcare. We discuss the two most common presentations of gallbladder disease (biliary colic and cholecystitis) and their pathophysiology, risk factors, signs and symptoms. We discuss the factors that affect clinical care, including diagnosis, treatment outcomes, surgical risk factors, quality of life and cost-efficacy. We highlight the importance of standardised guidelines and objective scoring systems in improving quality, consistency and compatibility across healthcare providers and in improving patient outcomes, collaborative opportunities and the cost-effectiveness of treatment. Guidelines and scoring only exist in select areas of the care pathway. Opportunities exist elsewhere in the care pathway.

Prevalence and risk factors for gallstone disease: A population-based cross-sectional study

OBJECTIVE

To explore the prevalence of and risk factors for gallstone disease in Shanghai, China.

METHODS

A population-based cross-sectional study was conducted in Shanghai between 2016 and 2017. Using a three-stage stratified sampling strategy, 4009 participants (1753 men and 2256 women) from 10 districts were enrolled.

RESULTS

The overall prevalence of gallstones was 6.83% (6.22% for men vs 7.31% for women, P = 0.173). According to the multivariate analysis, individuals aged ≥40 years (odds ratio [OR] 3.058, 95% confidence interval [CI] 2.110-4.433, P < 0.001), hypertension (OR 1.479, 95% CI 1.076-2.034, P = 0.016), thyroid disease (OR 1.409, 95% CI 1.029-1.928, P = 0.032), a family history of gallstones (OR 2.234, 95% CI 1.362-3.662, P = 0.001) and a waist-to-height ratio ≥0.5 (OR 1.656, 95% CI 1.197-2.292, P = 0.002) had an increased risk of developing gallstones. The risk of gallstone disease was 2.232 (95% CI 1.167-4.268, P = 0.015) times higher in individuals with elevated C4 levels than in those with normal C4 levels. Diabetes (OR 4.144, 95% CI 1.171-14.671, P = 0.028) was a risk factor for the formation of gallstones with diameters ≥1 cm, and men were more susceptible to develop multiple stones (OR 2.356, 95% CI 1.321-4.200, P = 0.004).

CONCLUSION

Individuals aged ≥40 years, with a history of hypertension and familial gallstones, a high waist-to-height ratio, thyroid disease and high C4 levels were related to an increased risk of gallstone disease.

Recent advances in understanding and managing cholesterol gallstones

The high prevalence of cholesterol gallstones, the availability of new information about pathogenesis, and the relevant health costs due to the management of cholelithiasis in both children and adults contribute to a growing interest in this disease. From an epidemiologic point of view, the risk of gallstones has been associated with higher risk of incident ischemic heart disease, total mortality, and disease-specific mortality (including cancer) independently from the presence of traditional risk factors such as body weight, lifestyle, diabetes, and dyslipidemia. This evidence points to the existence of complex pathogenic pathways linking the occurrence of gallstones to altered systemic homeostasis involving multiple organs and dynamics. In fact, the formation of gallstones is secondary to local factors strictly dependent on the gallbladder (that is, impaired smooth muscle function, wall inflammation, and intraluminal mucin accumulation) and bile (that is, supersaturation in cholesterol and precipitation of solid crystals) but also to "extra-gallbladder" features such as gene polymorphism, epigenetic factors, expression and activity of nuclear receptors, hormonal factors (in particular, insulin resistance), multi-level alterations in cholesterol metabolism, altered intestinal motility, and variations in gut microbiota. Of note, the majority of these factors are potentially manageable. Thus, cholelithiasis appears as the expression of systemic unbalances that, besides the classic therapeutic approaches to patients with clinical evidence of symptomatic disease or complications (surgery and, in a small subgroup of subjects, oral litholysis with bile acids), could be managed with tools oriented to primary prevention (changes in diet and lifestyle and pharmacologic prevention in subgroups at high risk), and there could be relevant implications in reducing both prevalence and health costs.

Quantitative trait loci mapping for cholesterol gallstones in AKR/J and C57L/J strains of mice

Quantitative trait locus (QTL) mapping was used to locate genes that determine the difference in cholesterol gallstone disease between the gallstone-susceptible strain C57L/J and the gallstone-resistant strain AKR/J. Gallstone weight was determined in 231 male (AKR x C57L) F(1) x AKR backcross mice fed a lithogenic diet containing 1% cholesterol, 0.5% cholic acid, and 15% butterfat for 8 wk. Mice having no stones and mice having the largest stones were genotyped at approximately 20-cM intervals to find the loci determining cholesterol gallstone formation. The major locus, Lith1, mapped near D2Mit56 and was confirmed by constructing a congenic strain, AK. L-Lith1(s). Another locus, Lith2, mapped near D19Mit58 and was also confirmed by constructing a congenic strain AK.L-Lith2(s). Other suggestive, but not statistically significant, loci mapped to chromosomes 6, 7, 8, 10, and X. The identification of these Lith genes will elucidate the pathophysiology of cholesterol gallstone formation.