ABSTRACT
The gallbladder (GB) physiological cycle is divided into four continuous processes, namely passive refilling, isometric contraction, active emptying and relaxation. The relaxation was ignored, and the refilling was considered as a constant bile pressure process. In this context, the active and passive stresses were separated and calculated in the whole cycle for human GBs under CCK stimulation in hospital based on the ellipsoid model described in Chapter 5. The peak in-plane maximum total (active plus passive) stress at the start of emptying was extracted and correlated to 51 patient pain profile observed clinically with a success rate of 75%. A ±10% alternation in the pain threshold results in −4% to +1% variation in the success rate only. The maximum mean stretches of three ellipses in the three cross sections of the ellipsoid with x-y, y-z and x-z planes were correlated to the pain profile when the GB at the end of emptying serves as the reference configuration. However, the corresponding success rate as low as 56.9%. Obviously, the peak in-plane maximum total stress is the GB pain index.
