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Three kinds of structures precipitated from the A gall of a patient were observed on the same samples by a field emission gun-scanning electron microscope (FEG-SEM). They were branching fractal structures, dendritic structures, and irregular crystalline grains. The fractal structures consisted of numerous granules that mostly disconnected each other. The dendrites were connected basically together. The tiny crystalline grains were of complicated shapes. A precipitation-aggregation-branching (PAB) model was used to explain growth mechanism of the fractal structure. Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) was employed to measure chemical composition of three kinds of precipitates, as well as the A gall matrix. The experimental results reveal that saline or salt played an important role to the formation of the fractal structure, and also to that of the dendritic structure and crystalline grain. There may be relationship between the fractal in the A gall sample and fractal in gallstones. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.