2019 Volume 33 Issue 2 Pages 211-215
In the past year, we evaluated age-related changes and setting an upper limit of extrahepatic bile duct diameter (EHBD) with considering the presence or absence of cholecystectomy in 2265 individuals who had routine health checks or abdominal ultrasonography without abdominal symptoms. Sixty-nine of them had undergone cholecystectomy. EHBD was measured from the front of the anterior wall to the front of the posterior wall on ultrasonograms. The mean EHBD of all subjects and no past-history of cholecystectomy group increased with age except for individuals in their teens, nineties and centenarians. The mean EHBD by gender also increased with age, except for males in one teen and females in nineties and one centenarian. In individuals who had undergone cholecystectomy, the mean EHBD showed no age-related tendency to change, although there was a tendency for increased dilatation in each age compared with non-cholecystectomy group. As the age-related change in EHBD shows no relation to gender, there is a need to establish a reference value for EHBD in each age group while bearing in mind whether or not there has been past-history of cholecystectomy, in order to judge appropriately whether the bile duct is dilated.
