Diagnostic Value of Plasma Amylase, Especially after Gastrectomy.

The plasma-amylase level is almost invariably raised at the height of an attack of acute pancreatitis. However, the diagnostic value of this is limited by the occasional finding of .qually high levels in patients with acute abdominal conditions which are not primarily acute pancreatitis. In our experience such " false-positive " findings have been commonly associated with a history of gastrectomy. In order to study this relationship we have reviewed, for the 10-year period January 1952 to December 1961, the 119 patients whose plasma-amylase levels were found to be above 1,000 units (Somogyi)/100 ml. Of these, 113 had acute abdominal symptoms resembling those of acute pancreatitis.