RESUMO
The studies on the occurrence of biliary lithiasis in patients with chronic Chagas' disease have shown conflicting results. Aiming at contributing to a better understanding of the topic was assessed, by ultrasonographic scan, the frequency of Colelithiasis in chagasic patients with different anatomo-clinical forms of the disease. A total of 128 patients were studied, 85 males (mean age: 53 +/- 13 years) and 43 females (mean age: 53 +/_ 10 years) nineteen males and 18 females had the cardiac form ; 32 males and 19 females the digestive form; 20 males and 3 females the cardiac and digestive forms simultaneously; and 14 males and 3 females the indeterminate form. Controls were a series of 1139 individuals without Chagas' disease, 716 males and 423 females (mean age 46 +/_ 14 years for both sexes), who were submitted to postmortem examination. The frequency of cholelithiasis in chagasic males (14.1%) was significantly higher than in the controls (6%); by subgroup, it was significantly higher in the individuals with the cardiac and cardiac-digestive form (26.3% and 20% respectively), but not in those with the digestive form (9.4%). The frequency of colelithiasis was also significantly higher in chagasic females in the total (42%) and in the cardiac (50%) and digestive (31.6%) forms, when compared to the control group (14%). Male and female chronic chagasic patients have an increased frequency of colelithiasis, and therefore the preoccupation about this finding should not be restricted to the digestive form of the disease, as previous studies on this subject have suggested.