Ultrasound imaging of gallstones

[Guest guest]

>My worst gallbladder attack wasn't even a gallbladder attack, but had

>the

>same symptoms excepting I didn't have any stones according to the

>ultrasound

>that was done!

I have also had ultrasound imaging that showed no stones, but the

roentgenologist explained to me that there may be stones that are not

visible, either because they are small or because they are in a certain

part of the gall bladder.

The last ultrasound that I had done, about two months ago, also showed no

stones. But since the doctor knew that I had had stones that showed on

the previous ultrasound, she moved me to a more sensitive ultrasound

machine, and worked extremely hard to find them (including my assuming

many positions that I had never experienced in previous ultrasound

scanning), and finally was successful in finding a stone. Many other

roentgenologists would have simply concluded that there were no stones,

and left me to believe that I had passed any that I had previously had.

I think it would be fair to say that false negatives are more common than

false positives with regard to gallstones.

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IRA L. JACOBSON

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