Patients with coronary Heart disease appear to be at increased risk of developing gallstones, Mexican researchers report.

We have found a “strong association between both diseases,” Dr. Nahum Mendez-Sanchez, who led the study, told Reuters Health.

Obesity is a risk factor for gallstones and coronary heart disease. To investigate the possible association between these two diseases, the researchers, based at Medica Sur Clinic and Foundation in Mexico City, studied 119 patients with gallstones visible on ultrasound and 354 controls without evidence of gallstones.

The prevalence of Coronary heart disease was close to 16 percent in subjects with gallstones, significantly higher than that of controls at 4.5 percent, they report in the April issue of the American Journal of Gastroenterology.

The most important risk factors for gallstones were having a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or higher, a waist circumference of more than 40 inches for men and more than 35 inches for women, high blood pressure, and insulin resistance, a pre-diabetic condition.

In analyses adjusting for age, gender and BMI, the risk of gallstones in those with Coronary heart disease remained almost three times higher than those without.

Mendez-Sanchez emphasized that weight loss has been recognized as a key factor in the control and prevention of these conditions. “Even a modest loss of 5 percent of initial body weight can reduce, eliminate or prevent these disorders in a large proportion of overweight patients,” he said.

SOURCE: American Journal of Gastroenterology April 2005.