Serum amylase isoenzyme profiles as a differential index in disease
Warshaw, A.L.
Journal of Laboratory and Clinical Medicine 90(1): 1-3
1977
ISSN/ISBN: 0022-2143 PMID: 326996 Document Number: 121693
Current techniques of isoamylase analysis are still too complicated and time-consuming to be useful on a genuinely routine basis. The number of observations of human serum isoamylases in nonpancreatic, nonsalivary diseases is still quite small. Greater experience is needed to confirm that characteristic isoamylase profiles occur in genital tract, lung, and liver diseases as well as in pancreatic disease. Available methods suffice to be of clinical value in diagnosing macroamylasemia, in verifying the diagnosis of pancreatitis (especially for studies of that disease, wherein uncertainty of diagnosis has always been a major pitfall), and in differential diagnosis when there is persistent hyperamylasemia with multiple possible causes or with no apparent cause.