Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Case Reports
. 2012 Jul 10:2012:bcr0220125917.
doi: 10.1136/bcr.02.2012.5917.

A very high amylase can be benign in paediatric Crohn's disease

Devasmitha Venkataraman  1 , Lucy Howarth, Robert Mark Beattie, Nadeem Ahmad Afzal
Affiliations
Case Reports

A very high amylase can be benign in paediatric Crohn's disease

Devasmitha Venkataraman et al. BMJ Case Rep. .

Abstract

A 12.5-year-old boy with Crohn's disease with abdominal pain had a raised amylase of 1835 IU/l with normal lipase levels. Ultrasound showed no evidence of inflammation of pancreas. The amylase to creatinine clearance ratio, was 0.8% (reference interval 2%-5%; >6% consistent with acute pancreatitis; <1.6% with macroamylasemia), suggesting he had raised serum amylase with a corresponding reduced clearance of amylase in his urine, positively supporting the diagnosis of macroamylasemia. Macroamylasemia has no clinical significance other than misdiagnosis as acute pancreatitis. Awareness of this condition is important and a positive diagnosis should always be made to avoid unnecessary changes in treatments.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: None.

References

    1. Benifla M, Weizman Z. Acute pancreatitis in childhood: analysis of literature data. J Clin Gastroenterol 2003;37:169–72. - PubMed
    1. Larrosa A, Sanchez CA, Villa A, et al. Increasing incidence of acute pancreatitis and recurrent pancreatitis as an emergent syndrome [abstract]. J Pediatr Gastroenterol Nutr 2006;43:31.
    1. Park A, Latif SU, Shah AU, et al. Changing referral trends of acute pancreatitis in children: A 12-year single-center analysis. J Pediatr Gastroenterol Nutr 2009;49:316–22. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Morinville VD, Barmada MM, Lowe ME. Increasing incidence of acute pancreatitis at an American pediatric tertiary care center: is greater awareness among physicians responsible? Pancreas 2010;39:5–8. - PubMed
    1. Nydegger A, Heine RG, Ranuh R, et al. Changing incidence of acute pancreatitis: 10-year experience at the Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne. J Gastroenterol Hepatol 2007;22:1313–6. - PubMed

Publication types

Supplementary concepts

LinkOut - more resources