Prevalencia de síntomas digestivos en mujeres adultas normales y su asociación a la litiasis biliar / Prevalence ofdigestive symptoms in normal adult women and it association with biliary lithiasis

ABSTRACT

The aim of this work was to study the prevalence of biliary diseases and digestive symptoms in normal adult women. Four hundred nineteen women were chosen; of these 145 were discarded due to previous gastrointestinal disease (20), previous gastrointestinal complaints (38) and previous cholecystectomy (85). Two hundred seventy six women were subjected to abdominal ultrasound examination; of these, 53 had cholelithiasis and in three a gallbladder cancer was suspected (and confirmed by surgery). Considering women with previous cholecystectomy, cholelithiasis and gallbladder cancer, a 33.6 per cent prevalence of biliary diseases can be inferred. An interrogation about gastrointestinal symptoms was performed to women subjected to ultrasound examinations by 2 professionals unware of ultrasound results. A high frequency of pyrosis, food intolerance and constipation was found, not observing differences between women with or without cholelithiasis. However, these last women had a higher frequency of upper abdominal pain. Both groups had also a high rate of previous surgical procedures