Korean J Gastroenterol.  1999 Jul;34(1):94-99.

Risk Factors for Cholangiocarcinomas Associated with Hepatolithiasis

• Byeon JS
• Lee KH
• Lee WJ
• Lee JS
• Kim YT
• Kim SW
• Yoon YB
• Kim CY

Abstract

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Hepatolithiasis is a risk factor for cholangiocarcinoma, but it is difficult to detect early cholangiocarcinoma which occurs as a complication of hepatolithiasis. To elucidate the risk factors for cholangiocarcinoma associated with hepatolithiasis, we evaluated the clinical characteristics of patients who had cholangiocarcinoma with hepatolithiasis.
METHODS
Twenty-seven patients who had hepatolithiasis with cholangiocarcinoma and 71 patients with hepatolithiasis only were recruited in this study. We analyzed sex ratio, age, location of intrahepatic stone, combined hepatic atrophy, and serum carcinoembrionic antigen (CEA) level for these two groups.
RESULTS
The sex ratio, location of intrahepatic stones, and rate of combined hepatic atrophy were not different between the two groups. Although the mean age was not statistically different, the proportion of patients aged over 40 was higher in the cholangiocarcinoma-complicating hepatolithiasis group (HC) (96.3%) than in the hepatolithiasis (H) group (71.8%) (p<0.05). The serum CEA levels were higher in the HC group (60.7+/-110.8 ng/ml) than in the H group (2.5+/-1.2 ng/ml)(p<0.05).
CONCLUSIONS
We should suspect a concurrent cholangiocarcinoma in patients with hepatolithiasis, especially those with age over 40 and high serum CEA level.

Keyword

Cholangiocarcinoma; Hepatolithiasis; CEA

MeSH Terms

Atrophy
Cholangiocarcinoma*
Humans
Risk Factors*
Sex Ratio