Gallbladder disease in hyperlipoproteinaemia.

The occurrence of gallbladder disease (G.B.D.) (cholelithiasis, cholecystitis, cholecystectomy) was examined in patients consecutively admitted beccause of hyperlipoproteinaemia types IIa and IV. Altogether 37 of the 52 patients with the type IIa pattern were women, whereas 56 of the 75 subjects with hyperlipoproteinaemia type IV were men. The overall incidence of G.B.D. in the group with the type IIa was 13 per cent in the males and 22 per cent in the females; the corresponding figures in type IV were 41 per cent and 68 per cent, respectively. The findings in the major age-group (40-59 years) were compared with those from three necropsy series covering subjects of the same age. The incidence of G.B.D. was then found to be normal in type IIa but abnormally high in type IV. Patients with and without G.B.D. did not differ with regard to body-weight or glucose tolerance.