High Prevalence of Hyperamylasemia in Patients with Acidemia

Excerpt

A diagnosis of acute pancreatitis usually depends on the finding of elevated serum amylase activity. Although a low-grade elevation of serum amylase is a relatively non-specific finding, most acutely ill patients with appreciable elevations of serum amylase activity are considered to have acute pancreatitis (1-3). However, many nonpancreatic conditions produce marked elevations in serum amylase activity (1-3). One condition that has received considerable attention is diabetic ketoacidosis (4). Because we noted elevations of serum amylase in the apparent absence of clinical pancreatitis in several nondiabetic patients with acidemia in our intensive care unit, we decided to measure prospectively serum total