Abstract
The latest techniques in scanning electron microscopy have been applied to this study. In cholesterol gallstones, the fracture surface generally shows a crystalline plane radiating pattern, often showing dendritic growth, around the nucleus. On the surface or fracture plane of a cholesterol stone, parallelogram crystals or corrugated crystals are sometimes seen. In higher magnification, the surface of a crystalline plane is seen to be composed of lamellae of about 200 A in thickness, which is frequently associated with spiral growth. In view of the fact that a number of linear boundaries are just visible near the center of each spherulite, it appears that, in the multinuclear stones, cyrstallization starts at various points or nuclei and spreads out from these points. These results support the view that cholesterol crystals proceed from the center toward the periphery.
