[Urinary enzyme excretion in diseases of the internal organs].

In a survey the present possibilities are outlined to get knowledge about diseases of inner organs with the help of enzyme determinations in the urine. Here it is remarkable that changes of the enzyme excretion appear not only in renal disease with acute renal failure, pyelonephritis, glomerulonephritis, renal infarction and nephroptosis but are also to be observed in primarily extrarenal diseases such as diabetes mellitus, hyperthyroidism, thesaurismoses, myocardial infarction, hypertension, acute pancreatitis, epidemic hepatitis, liver cirrhosis, obstructive jaundice and rheumatoid arthritis. The causes of the changes of enzyme excretions are various. Since enzymes of different origin and localisation behave themselves variably, the simultaneous determination of a brush border marker (e.g. alanine aminopeptidase), a lysosomal enzyme (e.g. beta-glucuronidase or N-acetyl glucosaminidase) and a low molecular enzyme (e.g. lysozyme) is of use for the recognition of renal alterations. By the control of activities of urinary enzymes it is possible to get without risk informations about pathobiochemical processes in the kidney which are not to be gained by means of other methods.