Is bile salt-dependent lipase concentration in serum of any help in pancreatic cancer diagnosis?
The diagnostic value of bile salt-dependent lipase for pancreatic diseases was tested in sera of 187 patients. Of these patients, 76 suffered from pancreatic carcinoma, 43 from nonmalignant liver diseases (cirrhosis and chronic hepatitis), 18 from acute pancreatitis, and 20 from chronic pancreatitis. The remaining subjects were controls without pancreatic pathology. Bile salt-dependent lipase was determined by a sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay using polyclonal antibodies. Amylase and CA 19-9 antigen were also determined. In sera from control patients, the mean level of bile salt-dependent lipase was 1.5 micrograms/L. This level is quite similar to that of patients with benign liver diseases (1.1 micrograms/L) and with chronic pancreatitis (1.4 micrograms/L), but it was raised to 3.5 micrograms/L in patients with acute pancreatitis and decreased to 0.5 microgram/L in subjects with pancreatic adenocarcinoma. Thirty percent of control subjects and 73% of cancer patients had a b
