Abstract

Sonography was used to investigate the prevalence of symptomatic and silent biliary tract disease, in free living urban population in Kashmir. A randomly drawn sample of 1695 subjects aged 15 years or above was interviewed by a questionnaire. Twenty six had previous cholecystectomies, all for gall stones. Ultrasonography was carried out on 1104 (65.1%). The responder rates for ultrasonography in men (64.3%) and in women (66.0%) were similar (p greater than 0.2). Gall stones were detected in 49 adults. Three of these had previous biliary symptoms. The prevalence of gall stones in adult population was 6.12% (men 3.07% and women 9.6%). The prevalence of gall stones rose with age in both sexes to a peak in the sixth decade prevalence of gall stones was significantly higher in age adjusted parous women than in nullipara. There was no correlation with obesity, diet, or socioeconomic status. Five subjects had sonographic appearances of the worm Ascaris lumbricodis in the bile ducts: and had previous biliary symptoms.