Elastase 1 in Acute Pancreatitis

Abstract

Besides the introduction of new imaging techniques, the diagnostics of acute pancreatitis have been improved in the last 10 years by new methods of specific pancreatic enzyme determination in serum [3, 7, 8, 11, 18]. Elastase of the pancreas seems to play a dominant role in the pathogenesis of acute pancreatitis, since this proteolytic and elastolytic enzyme alone is responsible for the destruction of elastic fibres [14]. The haemorrhagic form of severe acute pancreatitis develops in connection with an enormous liberation of active elastase from the acinar cells of the pancreas [5]. Few authors have been able to identify raised levels of serum elastase in inflammatory and neoplastic pancreas diseases in man by enzymatic and radioimmunological means [3, 9, 16]. In the present prospective study, we aimed to analyse the diagnostic and prognostic value of this enzyme compared to other specific pancreatic enzymes in acute pancreatitis, after having introduced a specific radioimmunoassay for pancreatic elastase 1.