title: Analysis of response to ursodeoxycholic acid for gallstone dissolution.
abstract: 20 patients with radiolucent gallbladder stones were reviewed after 6 months' treatment with ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) at a dose of either 500 or 1,000 mg daily. Successful treatment could not be predicted from the patients' characteristics, nor from stone size or pre-treatment biliary lipid analysis. During treatment the bile in patients who responded to UDCA differed from bile in those who did not: mean cholesterol content was lower in responders (4.1 +/- 0.6 vs. 5.7 +/- 0.5 mol%, p less than 0.025) as was the lithogenic index (0.57 +/- 0.06 vs. 0.81 +/- 0.06, p less than 0.005) and the mean UDCA-corrected lithogenic index (0.79 +/- 0.10 vs. 1.04 +/- 0.07, p less than 0.05). However, the individual response could not be predicted from biliary lipid analysis during treatment.
mesh_terms: D001646:Bile / Q000032:analysis; D001647:Bile Acids and Salts / Q000032:analysis; D002635:Chenodeoxycholic Acid / Q000627:therapeutic use; D002769:Cholelithiasis / Q000188:drug therapy*; D002784:Cholesterol / Q000032:analysis; D003840:Deoxycholic Acid / Q000031:analogs & derivatives*; D006801:Humans; D010743:Phospholipids / Q000032:analysis; D014580:Ursodeoxycholic Acid / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use*
chemical_list: D001647:Bile Acids and Salts; D010743:Phospholipids; D003840:Deoxycholic Acid; D002635:Chenodeoxycholic Acid; D014580:Ursodeoxycholic Acid; D002784:Cholesterol