[The size of the gallbladder in acute viral hepatitis]

We investigated sonographically the gallbladders of 22 patients during the course of acute viral hepatitis. The size of the gallbladders in the fasting state varied characteristically. When the illness was at its severest, the gallbladder was slightly filled or empty. Later on in the course of the illness, the volume increased until the gallbladder was tightly filled. The area of the gallbladder was measured repeatedly with the same patient and individually correlated inversely with the values of aminopeptidases, but not in a strictly linear manner. This is in fact an easily detectable, sonographical marker of the clinical development of a severely disturbed liver function. When a gallbladder is seen empty, slack or with an apparently thickened wall in the fasting state, the diagnosis of a parenchymal jaundice may be considered.