scholarly journals The Role of Routine Assays of Serum Amylase and Lipase for the Diagnosis of Acute Abdominal Pain

2009 ◽  
Vol 91 (5) ◽  
pp. 381-384 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul A Sutton ◽  
David J Humes ◽  
Gemma Purcell ◽  
Janette K Smith ◽  
Frances Whiting ◽  
...  

INTRODUCTION We aimed to evaluate the role of routine measurements of serum amylase and lipase in the diagnosis of acute abdominal pain. PATIENTS AND METHODS We identified all patients who had serum amylase and lipase assays over a 62-day period at a single university teaching hospital and reviewed their case notes. RESULTS We excluded 58 of the 1598 patients on grounds of ineligibility (< 18 years of age and those transferred from other hospitals). A complete data set was obtained for 1520 (98.7%) of the remaining 1540 patients. Only 9.1% of requests were based on a clinical suspicion of acute pancreatitis. Of the 44 (2.9%) patients who had acute pancreatitis, only 28 (63.6%) had an associated rise in serum amylase and/or lipase 3 times above the maximum reference range, the remainder being diagnosed radiologically. At this cut-off range, the sensitivity and specificity for serum amylase were 50% and 99%, and those for serum lipase 64% and 97%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS Routine measurements of serum amylase and lipase are unhelpful in the diagnosis of acute abdominal pain unless there is clinical suspicion of acute pancreatitis. In these patients, assay of lipase alone is preferable to assay of amylase alone or both enzymes.

2014 ◽  
Vol 52 (196) ◽  
pp. 982-985 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roshan Ghimire ◽  
Anurag Singh Thapa ◽  
Dimindra Karki ◽  
Dipendra Kumar Shrestha

Introduction: Acute abdominal pain is a common condition presenting to both the emergency department and surgical admission unit. Increase in serum amylase levels are found in much gastrointestinal pathology. Serum amylase level is consistently high in acute pancreatitis though high values are not pathognomonic of pancreatitis .The aim of this study to assess the level of serum amylase in various diseases presenting with acute abdominal pain and to evaluate the role of routine measurement of serum amylase in the screening of patient with acute abdominal pain for the diagnosis of acute pancreatitis in a prospective series. Methods: A prospective observational study was performed from 15th May 2014 – 15th Nov 2014 (6 months) at Department of Surgery of Kathmandu medical College Teaching Hospital; Kathmandu. All consecutive patients presented at emergency department and required admissions in surgical ward were included. A multivariate analysis was performed to assess the level of serum amylase in various diseases presenting with acute abdominal pain including acute pancreatitis. Results: Overall, 318 patients were included during a period of 6 months among them 48 patients were excluded. 34 cases (12.6 %) were diagnosed of acute pancreatitis. three cases (1.1%) of non pancreatic pathology with raised serum amylase level (> 1000 U\L). Conclusions: Routine assessment of serum amylase is helpful in excluding differential diagnosis of patient presenting with acute abdomen and this study identified serum amylase as a good screening tool if done in cases with clinical suspicion.  Keywords: acute abdominal pain; acute pancreatitis; serum amylase.


2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 252
Author(s):  
Jagmohan Mishra ◽  
Biplab Mishra ◽  
Afroza Firodous

Background: Acute pancreatitis possess difficulty in diagnosis in its emergency presentation. Hence to segregate this disease is important from other specific or non-specific causes of acute abdomen. Hence in suspected cases in majority of patients the urinary trypsinogen-2 test strip (Actim pancreatitis) can be used to detect this disease, especially in emergency set-up. The result of the strip test is then corroborated with findings of serum lipase in the blood.Methods: Author prospectively compared 205 consecutive patients with acute abdominal pain admitted to the casualty, SCB Medical College and Hospital. The patients were tested on admission with the Actim pancreatitis test strip. Serum amylase, serum lipase, and urine trypsinogen-2 concentrations were also determined quantitatively.Results: The Actim pancreatitis test strip was sensitive in 93% cases and specific in 92% cases. This was superior to that of serum lipase (sensitivity 77% and specificity 87%). With a cut-off >3x the upper reference limit, the sensitivity of serum lipase was only 52% while the specificity was 98%. The high sensitivity for the Actim pancreatitis test strip resulted in every high negative predictive value of 99%.Conclusions: In patients with acute abdominal pain seen in emergency department, a negative dipstick for urinary trypsinogen-2 rules out acute pancreatitis with high degree of probability and therefore appears to be more suitable for screening of acute pancreatitis. With its high specificity with a cut-off >3x the upper reference limit, serum lipase is suitable as a confirmatory test for pancreatitis when a positive dipstick result is obtained.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-38
Author(s):  
Sonali Prabhakar ◽  
◽  
Ramis Abdul Aziz ◽  
M S Moosabba ◽  
◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (SPL4) ◽  
pp. 1709-1713
Author(s):  
Guhan K A ◽  
Naveen Nagendran M D R D

Acute pancreatitis is one of the many complex conditions causing significant morbidity and mortality in patients. CT imaging, along with Serum Lipase and Amylase plays a vital role in the diagnosis and staging of acute pancreatitis. The purpose of this study is to compare the role of CECT and Serum Lipase and Amylase in the diagnosis of acute pancreatitis. The study was done in a span of 3 months (January 2020 to March 2020) on all clinically and biochemically suspected cases of acute pancreatitis (study sample = 120). All these patients were subjected to CECT, and their serum Amylase, Lipase levels were checked. The most commonly affected age group in this study was 41-50 years (45.83%) with a male predominance (59.1%). Alcoholism (49.5%), Cholelithiasis (25.5%) were observed to be the most common aetiology. In conclusion, CECT plays a much better role in the identification and characterisation of acute pancreatitis than Serum Lipase and Amylase.


2012 ◽  
Vol 65 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 152-157
Author(s):  
Snezana Tesic-Rajkovic ◽  
Biljana Radovanovic-Dinic ◽  
Tatjana Jevtovic-Stoimenov

Introduction. Alcoholic acute pancreatitis occurs in 10% of alcoholics, who take more than 80g alcohol daily. Different biochemical markers are used to diagnose acute pancreatitis, and some of them may help in establishing etiology of acute pancreatitis. Material and Methods. This study is a prospective review of 21 patients. All patients were hospitalized at the Department for Gastroenterology and Hepatology or at the Department for Surgery of the Clinical Centre of Nis in the period from August 1st 2009 to March 1st 2010 with diagnosis of acute alcoholic pancreatitis. Detailed anamnesis, clinical examination, biochemical analyses and ultrasonography of the upper abdomen were done in all patients. All patients provided data on alcohol abuse. Results. The analysis of the corresponding biochemical parameters revealed a statistically significant correlation between the following values: serum amylase and serum lipase (R=0.964674; p<0.001), cholesterol and triglycerides (R=0.93789; p<0.001), total and direct bilirubin (R=0.857899; p<0.001) and between aspartate aminotransferase and alanine aminotransferase (R=0.824461, p<0.001) in patients with alcoholic acute pancreatitis. In addition, there was a statistically significant correlation between the values of serum amylase and urinary amylase (R=0.582742, p<0.001). Discussion. The analysis of biochemical markers showed that some of them were significant for beforehand diagnosis of alcoholic acute pancreatitis, which is in accordance with other studies. Conclusion Some biochemical parameters can be potential predictors of alcoholic acute pancreatitis (lipase/amylase ratio >2, greater ratio of aspartate aminotransferase/ alanine aminotransferase, enhanced triglycerides and values of mean corpuscular volume.


2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 79-86
Author(s):  
Nalan Kozaci ◽  
Mustafa Avci ◽  
Gul Tulubas ◽  
Ertan Ararat ◽  
Omer Faruk Karakoyun ◽  
...  

Objectives: This prospective study was performed to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of bedside point-of-care abdominal ultrasonography performed by emergency physician in patients with non-traumatic acute abdominal pain. Methods: The patients, who were admitted to emergency department due to abdominal pain, were included in this study. The emergency physician obtained a routine history, physical examination, blood draws, and ordered diagnostic imaging. After the initial clinical examinations, all the patients underwent ultrasonography for abdominal pathologies by emergency physician and radiologist, respectively. Point-of-care abdominal ultrasonography compared with abdominal ultrasonography performed by radiologist as the gold standard. Results: The study included 122 patients. Gallbladder and appendix pathologies were the most commonly detected in the abdominal ultrasonography. Compared with abdominal ultrasonography, point-of-care abdominal ultrasonography was found to have 89% sensitivity and 94% specificity in gallbladder pathologies; 91% sensitivity and 91% specificity in acute appendicitis; 79% sensitivity and 97% specificity in abdominal free fluid; 83% sensitivity and 96% specificity in ovarian pathologies. Compared to final diagnosis, preliminary diagnoses of emergency physicians were correct in 92 (75.4%) patients. Conclusion: This study showed that emergency physicians were successful in identifying abdominal organ pathologies with point-of-care abdominal ultrasonography after training.


1993 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony E. Zimmermann ◽  
Brian G. Katona ◽  
Joginder S. Jodhka ◽  
Richard B. Williams

OBJECTIVE: To report a case of probable ceftriaxone-induced acute pancreatitis. CASE SUMMARY: A patient with a history of short-bowel syndrome on home total parenteral nutrition developed fever, chills, and right flank pain. She was diagnosed with gram-negative catheter sepsis and prescribed antibiotic therapy to be administered for four weeks. After completion of the first week of therapy, the antibiotic regimen was changed to intravenous injections of ceftriaxone to be given daily at home. Prior to discharge the patient developed acute abdominal pain, leukocytosis, jaundice, and markedly elevated lipase and amylase concentrations consistent with acute pancreatitis. The patient's condition improved upon discontinuation of the ceftriaxone and the remainder of her stay was uneventful. DISCUSSION: There is only one other case report in the literature of probable ceftriaxone-induced pancreatitis. Multiple other medications have been implicated in causing acute pancreatitis. The exact mechanism of this uncommon adverse effect of ceftriaxone is unknown. CONCLUSIONS: There was a temporal relationship between the development of this patient's signs and symptoms and the administration of ceftriaxone. We could not identify any other factors that may have been responsible for the development of her acute pancreatitis. Ceftriaxone should be considered as a possible etiologic agent in patients who present with acute abdominal pain and elevated lipase and amylase concentrations.


2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 359-363 ◽  
Author(s):  
Omar Nadhem ◽  
Omar Salh

Acute pancreatitis is an important cause of acute upper abdominal pain. Because its clinical features are similar to a number of other acute illnesses, it is difficult to make a diagnosis only on the basis of symptoms and signs. The diagnosis of acute pancreatitis is based on 2 of the following 3 criteria: (1) abdominal pain consistent with pancreatitis, (2) serum lipase and/or amylase ≥3 times the upper limit of normal, and (3) characteristic findings from abdominal imaging. The sensitivity and specificity of lipase in diagnosing acute pancreatitis are undisputed. However, normal lipase level should not exclude a pancreatitis diagnosis. In patients with atypical pancreatitis presentation, imaging is needed. We experienced two cases of acute pancreatitis associated with normal serum enzyme levels. Both patients were diagnosed based on clinical and radiological evidence. They were successfully treated with intravenous fluids and analgesics with clinical and laboratory improvement. The importance of this case series is the unlikely presentation of acute pancreatitis. We believe that more research is needed to determine the exact proportion of acute pancreatitis patients who first present with normal serum lipase, since similar cases have been seen in case reports.


2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (11) ◽  
pp. 3707 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nishith M. Paul Ekka ◽  
Gaurav Mishra ◽  
Vinod Kumar ◽  
Arun Kumar Tiwary ◽  
Tanushree Kar ◽  
...  

Background: Acute pancreatitis is the single most frequent gastrointestinal cause of hospital admissions. Scoring systems have been used since the 1970s for assessment of its severity. This study was aimed to assess the clinical pattern of acute pancreatitis and to compare various predicting systems like Ranson, BISAP and APACHE II in predicting severity, local complications and mortality in acute pancreatitis.Methods: In this prospective study, 91 consecutive cases of acute pancreatitis admitted, between April 2015 to March 2017, were studied. The diagnostic criteria include the presence of at least two of the three features; abdominal pain, serum amylase and lipase levels and findings on imaging studies. Patients were divided into two groups each, BISAP Ranson ≥3 and <3, APACHE II ≥8 and <8, and analyzed statistically.Results: Out of total of 91 patients, 81 were male and 14 were female with mean age was 36.14 years. Commonest aetiological factor was alcoholism in 57.89% followed by gallstones in 23.16%. Serum amylase was raised in 83.26% patients while 95.79% had raised serum lipase levels. 75.79% patients were of MAP while 24.21% patients were of MSAP and SAP. 7.37% patients developed local complications and mortality rate was 6.32%. All the scoring systems were found similar in predicting severity, local complication and mortality, had low sensitivity and high specificity (P value < 0.05).Conclusions: There is no ideal predicting system for acute pancreatitis. These scoring systems can be used to triage patients for better healthcare delivery.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document