Clinical Image

      Cholesterol and bilirubin are kept in the gall bladder for storage. As people age, stones are made from complex molecular pathways. As a result, bile stones can form and were identified in the cadaver. These stones were made of cholesterol and had a dark pigment in the center. Bile stones can lead to death because the gall bladder can rupture and lead to internal bleeding.

     In the general population, bile stones are relatively common, especially in the developed world. There are many reasons why gall stones can exist, but most common are those related to the diet and aging. In the postmortem dissection of the gall bladder, it was noted the abundance of yellow staining in the stones, consistent with cholesterol deposition.