Observational Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Mar 21, 2015; 21(11): 3337-3343
Published online Mar 21, 2015. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v21.i11.3337
Economic and medical benefits of ultrasound screenings for gallstone disease
Hung-Ju Shen, Chung-Te Hsu, Tao-Hsin Tung
Hung-Ju Shen, Chung-Te Hsu, Tao-Hsin Tung, Cheng Hsin General Hospital, Taipei 112, Taiwan
Tao-Hsin Tung, Faculty of Public Health, School of Medicine, Fu-Jen Catholic University, Taipei 24205, Taiwan
Tao-Hsin Tung, Department of Nursing, Kang-Ning Junior College of Medical Care and Management, Taipei 114, Taiwan
Author contributions: Shen HJ, Hsu CT and Tung TH carried out the study and drafted the manuscript; Shen HJ participated in the design of the study and performed the statistical analysis; Tung TH conceived of the study, and participated in its design and coordination; all authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Supported by Grant from the National Science Council, No. NSC-98-2314-B-350-002-MY3 (in part).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Tao-Hsin Tung, PhD, Cheng Hsin General Hospital, Shih-Pai, Taipei 112, Taiwan. ch2876@chgh.org.tw
Telephone: +886-2-28264400 Fax: +886-2-28264550
Received: September 23, 2014
Peer-review started: September 25, 2014
First decision: October 14, 2014
Revised: November 3, 2014
Accepted: December 8, 2014
Article in press: December 8, 2014
Published online: March 21, 2015
Processing time: 177 Days and 7.4 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: The results of this economic evaluation of screening for gallstone disease indicated that routine ultrasound sonography screening is worthwhile. We recommend that the Chinese population is screened annually for gallstone disease, regardless of whether or not they have been diagnosed with gallstone disease in the past.