To understand gallstone disease, the knowledge of it’s chemical composition becomes very important. In our study, we have done the quantitative chemical analysis of gallstones collected from 40 patients and have classified them according to their biochemical composition. In our result we have found that pigment gallstones (n=16) were the most frequent type gallstones encountered followed by mixed gallstones (n=13) and cholesterol gallstones (n=11). Cholesterol was found to be a major component irrespective of the type of gallstones. The cholesterol stones had a higher amount of total cholesterol and inorganic phosphate compared to pigment and mixed gallstones. The pigment gallstones had higher amount of total bilirubin and calcium when compared with cholesterol gallstones and mixed gallstones. The mixed gallstones had higher amount of total bilirubin and calcium when compared with cholesterol gallstones.

Keywords: gallstones, chemical analysis, classification of gallstones, total cholesterol, total bilirubin, calcium,

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Dr Kaushik Nath

Demonstrator of Biochemistry, GMC, Guwahati, Assam, India

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