Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-01T00:19:15.680Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Time History of Human Gallstones: Application of the Post-Bomb Radiocarbon Signal

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

Ellen M Druffel  and
Henry Y I Mok
Ellen M Druffel
Affiliation:
Department of Chemistry, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543
Henry Y I Mok
Affiliation:
Woodland Clinic Medical Group, Woodland, California 95695
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Bomb-produced 14C is a valuable tool for studying rates of short-term processes involving carbon cycling. This study shows that bomb 14C is an excellent tracer of a biochemical process that takes place in the human body, namely the accretion of stones in the gallbladder. The methods developed for obtaining time histories of 14C/12C and 13C/12C in concentric layers from a large gallstone (30mm diameter) are reported. Formation times are assigned by matching the 14C/12C obtained from individual layers with those found for known-aged tree rings. Results show that the gallstone grew over a period of 10 years and seems to have lain dormant within the gallbladder for a period of 11 years. The average growth rate was 1.5mm/year.

Type
VI. Anthropogenic 14C Variations
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 25 , Issue 2: 11th International Radiocarbon Conference , 1983 , pp. 629 - 636
Copyright
Copyright © The American Journal of Science 

References

Bills, P M and Lewis, D, 1975, A structural study of gallstones: Gut, v 16, p 630–637.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Broecker, W S and Olson, E A, 1961, Lamont radiocarbon measurements VIII: Radiocarbon, v 3, p 176–204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cain, W F and Suess, H E, 1976, Carbon-14 in tree rings: Jour Geophys Research, v 81, p 3688–3694.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Druffel, E M, 1980, Radiocarbon in annual coral rings from the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans: PhD thesis, Univ California, San Diego.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fieser, and Fieser, 1959, Steroids: New York, Reinhold Pub Co.Google Scholar
Harkness, D D and Walton, A, 1972, Further investigations of the transfer of bomb 14C to man: Nature, v 240, p 302–303.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levin, I, Munnich, K O, and Weiss, W, 1980, The effect of anthropogenic CO2 and 14C sources on the distribution of 14C in the atmosphere, in Stuiver, Minze and Kra, Renee, eds, Internatl radiocarbon conf, 10th, Proc: Radiocarbon, v 22, no 2, p 379–391.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lonsdale, K, 1968a, Human stones: Scientific American, v 219, p 104–111.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lonsdale, K, 1968b, Human stones: Science, v 159, p 1199–1207.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nydal, R, Lövseth, K, and Gullicksen, S, 1979, A survey of radiocarbon variation in nature since the test ban treaty, in Berger, Rainer and Suess, H E, eds, Internatl radiocarbon conf, 9th, Proc: Radiocarbon dating, Berkeley, Univ California Press, p 313–323.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nydal, R, Lövseth, K, and Syrstad, O, 1971, Bomb 14C in the human population: Nature, v 232, p 418–421.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Small, D M, 1974, Management of gallstones, particularly the silent variety: advantages of a varied and individualized approach, in Ingelfinger, F J, Ebert, R B, Finland, M and Relman, A S, eds, Controversy in Internal Medicine, p 545–559.Google Scholar
Stenhouse, M J and Baxter, M S, 1977, Bomb 14C as a biological tracer: Nature, v 267, p 828–832.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stenhouse, M J, 1979, Further application of bomb 14C as a biological tracer, in Berger, Rainer and Suess, H E, eds, Radiocarbon dating, Internatl radiocarbon conf, 9th, Proc: Berkeley, Univ California Press, p 342–352.Google Scholar
Wolpers, C, 1968, Spontaneous dissolution of gallstones, Deutsch Med Wschr, v 93, p 2525–2532.CrossRefGoogle Scholar