Tomatsu S
Institute of Gastroenterology, Tokyo Women's Medical College, Japan.
Surg Endosc. 1987;1(2):89-92. doi: 10.1007/BF00312691.
The buoyancy of gallstones was observed by taking anterior-posterior scout X-ray films of two patients standing during endoscopic retrograde cholangiography. In case 1, the large and small gallstones differed in buoyancy, and ursodeoxycholic acid treatment dissolved the floating small stones while failing to dissolve the nonfloating large stone. In case 2, both the large and small stones floated and are being dissolved by ursodeoxycholic acid treatment. Since floating or nonfloating and the plane of flotation depend on the specific gravity of the gallstone, the above findings suggest that a gallstone with a low specific gravity is more readily dissolved than one with a high specific gravity. The present method of estimating the buoyancy of gallstones was therefore considered extremely useful in selecting patients for medical litholytic treatment.
通过对两名患者在内镜逆行胆管造影术站立时拍摄前后位定位X线片，观察胆结石的浮力。在病例1中，大小胆结石的浮力不同，熊去氧胆酸治疗使漂浮的小结石溶解，而未溶解不漂浮的大结石。在病例2中，大小结石均漂浮，且正在接受熊去氧胆酸治疗溶解。由于漂浮或不漂浮以及漂浮平面取决于胆结石的比重，上述发现表明，比重低的胆结石比比重高的胆结石更容易溶解。因此，目前这种评估胆结石浮力的方法被认为在选择接受药物溶石治疗的患者方面极为有用。
