Puzzling persistent hyperamylasemia, probably neither pancreatic nor pathologic

Increased serum amylase levels most commonly signify pancreatic disease. One hundred seventeen consecutive patients were studied because their serum amylase levels were abnormally high for periods ranging from 3 to 48 weeks. In each case, extensive clinical and radiologic evaluation had failed to reveal a reason for the abnormality. The amylase isoenzymes of their sera were separated by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, and the fractions were measured by a saccharogenic assay. The findings in the 117 patients showed that 79 percent had non-pancreatic causes for their hyperamylasemia. The biggest single group (64 percent) had a normal distribution of isoamylases, albeit at unusually high concentrations. This phenomenon, which has not been defined previously, is probably a variant of normal in which the homeostatic balance between production and metabolism is set at a high level. Macroamylasemia accounted for 6 percent of the cases and salivary hyperamylasemia for only 9 percent. Three patients had the characteristic isoamylase pattern ("old amylase") associated with pancreatic pseudocysts. Isoamylase fractionation is a cheap, efficient, and effective means of ruling out a pancreatic cause for hyperamylasemia. It is probable that in the majority of cases of persistent hyperamylasemia without obvious clinical cause there will be no disease at all.