[Bisalbuminaemia in pancreatitis: structural modifications of human serum albumin by proteolytic enzymes of the pancreas (author's transl)].

Bisalbuminaemia in pancreatitis is a transient abnormality related to the presence, on electrophoresis of the serum, of a fast-moving albumin; this abnormal form is also found, in large amounts, in the ascitic or pleural effusions of the patients. Experiments reported here indicate clearly that the fast albumin can be produced by a degradation of normal serum albumin by the proteolytic enzymes of the pancreas (chymotrypsin or elastase in association with carboxypeptidases A and B). Stuctural analysis of the isolated fast albumin of the patients shows that the C-terminal end of the molecule is different from normal serum albumin, which can be understood by a limited enzymatic degradation by chymotrypsin or elastase followed by the action of carboxypeptidases. The discovery of bisalbuminaemia in a patient affected by pancreatitis is suspicious of the presence of an ascitic or pleural effusion and of a pancreatic pseudo-cyst with a fistula emerging in the effusion.