Diabetologie und Stoffwechsel 2007; 2 - A6
DOI: 10.1055/s-2007-984752

Cholelithiasis in diabetes mellitus

P Heras 1, A Hatzopoulos 1, K Kritikos 1, D Mitsibounas 1
  • 1Hellenic Medical Society for the Study of Psychosomatic Problems, Athens, Greece

The aim of this study was to elucidate the factors precipitating to the increased prevalence of cholelithiasis in adult subjects with diabetes mellitus (DM).

Patients and Method

800 subjects (480 males and 320 females) with DM, 35–70 years old, consecutively, hospitalized in our Department last 5 years, were prospectively investigated.

Results

Among the 800 patients, Insulin-dependent (IDDM) was present in 160 (20%) subjects and 14 (15%) of them presented cholelithiasis (CL), whereas among the 640 (80%) non-insulin dependent DM (NIDDM) patients, CL was found in 160 (25%). The difference between the 2 CL prevalences is statistically significant (p<0.01). Overall 174 of the DM patients had CL (21,75%). 75 of these patients had gallstones and 99 had a history of previous cholecystectomy. Among the DM patients, 105 (60,3%) were females, 80 (46,7%) had obesity, 120 (68,9%) were over 50 years old and 75 (43,1%) had a duration of DM over 10 years.

Conclusion

In our study, the factors which seem to determine the increased prevalence of CL in DM, are:NIDDM, female sex, obesity,age over 50 years and duration of DM up to 10 years.