BACKGROUND: Alcoholic or biliary acute pancreatitis may need different therapeutic approaches. AIM: Assessing the validity of lipase/amylase ratio in differentiating biliary from alcoholic acute pancreatitis/acutized chronic pancreatitis. METHODS: Nine male patients (mean age and standard deviation: 39.8 ± 7.0 years) with alcoholic acute pancreatitis/acutized chronic pancreatitis (group I) and 29 patients, 8 male and 21 female (mean age: 43.6 ± 19.9 years), with biliary acute pancreatitis (group II) were evaluated. Serum lipase and amylase levels were measured in patients with symptoms for no more than 48 hours. The lipase/amylase ratio was calculated based on serum lipase and amylase levels and expressed as multiples of their respective superior reference values. RESULTS: Mean levels of serum lipase (4,814 ± 3,670 U/L) and amylase (1,282 ± 777 U/L) in patients of group I were comparable to group II (2,697 ± 2,391 and 1,878 ± 1,319 U/L, respectively), but the mean lipase/amylase ratio was significantly higher in group I (4.4 ± 3.6) than in group II (2.2 ± 2.2). Lipase/amylase ratio >3 occurred at significantly higher proportions in patients of group I (66.7%) than of group II (24.1%), differentiating the two groups with sensitivity of 67% and specificity of 76%. CONCLUSIONS: 1) Amylase and lipase serum levels did not differ in the two groups evaluated; 2) the lipase/amylase ratio >3 was more often seen in alcoholic acute pancreatitis/acutized chronic pancreatitis than biliary acute pancreatitis, and it may be useful in differentiating these two causes of pancreatitis.
Amylases; Lipase; Pancreatitis, chronic; Pancreatitis, alcoholic
