RESUMEN
BACKGROUND: We aimed to determine the prevalence and incidence of gallbladder stones in a random population-based collective in Germany. METHODS: We determined the prevalence and incidence rates of gallbladder stones in a random population sample of 1909 individuals from the Echinococcus-multilocularis in Leutkirch (EMIL) study in 2002 and 380 individuals in a follow-up analysis in the year 2013. The sonographic analysis was performed with a Philipps HDI 5000 (2002) and IU 22 (2013) (Netherlands) transducer 1-5âMHz. Statistical analysis was performed using SAS Version 9.4. RESULTS: The prevalence of gallbladder stones was 3.8â% (69/1909) in 2002 and 10.8â% (41/380) in 2013. In 2013, the gallbladder stone prevalence was 15.1â% (26/172) in women, compared to 7.2â% (15/208) in men. No gallbladder stones were found in participants in the 18-30 or 31-40 age groups. The average annual incidence was 1.03â% in the 41-50 age group, 0.79â% in the 51-65 age group, and 0.63â% in the >â65 age group.âThe annual incidence was higher among women (1.04â%) than men (0.53â%). The age-associated annual incidence rates for women and men were 1.93â% and 0.5â% in the 41-50 age group, 0.8â% and 0.78â% in the 51-65 age group, and 1.06â% and 0.30â% in the >â65 age group. CONCLUSION: For the investigated German collective from 2002 to 2013, the average annual incidence of gallbladder stones was 0.75â%, with a higher incidence rate among women. These results are consistent with data from comparable international studies.
