Serum lipase determination in acute pancreatitis. Clinical appraisal of a new method.

THE DEVELOPMENT of a clinically useful colorimetric method for human serum lipase was reported from this laboratory recently and its value in the diagnosis of acute pancreatitis was analyzed in a series of 102 patients with abdominal pain. 1 The present paper will evaluate our total experience with this test in 304 patients over a four year period, 1961 through 1964. Brief Review of the Colorimetric Serum Lipase Method Those desiring a more detailed description of this method are referred to the original report of Kramer et al. 1 Principle. —Seligman et al 2 described a colorimetric method for determining lipase and esterase activity in the sera of dogs but they were not able to apply the method successfully to human sera. It was noted that the sodium taurocholate used was not a reliable activator of pancreatic lipase in human serum. 3 Substitution of esterase-resistant 2-naphthyl myristate 4 for 2-naphthyl-laurate