Studies on serum immunoreactive elastase in experimental pancreatitis rats. I. In acute pancreatitis.

A new radioimmunological method for determination of serum rat elastase was described and serum elastase levels were measured in two different stages of acute pancreatitis: acute edematous and haemorrhagic pancreatitis were induced by PDL and PDLD technique in rats. In edematous pancreatitis, serum elastase levels showed a significant increase (P < 0.001) at one hour after induction of pancreatitis. Compared with control rats, whereas the serum amylase levels did not show a significant increase. In haemorrhagic pancreatitis, the levels of both elastase and amylase markedly increased within one hour of induction pancreatitis. These results show that the measurement of elastase level offers a more specific and sensitive parameter of diagnosis of acute pancreatitis than does amylase estimation.