Differential serum amylase determination by use of an inhibitor, and design of a routine procedure

Abstract

The authors describe a new method for measuring pancreatic and salivary type amylases in serum that requires no electrophoresis or chromatography. An inhibitor protein (from wheat) with a 100 fold greater specificity for human salivary than for human pancreatic amylase was used to analyze mixtures of the two enzymes. The concentration of pancreatic and salivary amylase was determined in 141 normal sera (72 men and 69 women). Statistically significant differences were found for serum pancreatic amylase between men and women, higher values being shown in women. No sex related difference was found for the salivary component of serum amylase. With this method, the increase in serum amylase activity in pancreatitis was shown to be attributable to the pancreatic component in mumps, the increase is attributable to the salivary component. In pancreatic insufficiency, serum pancreatic amylase activities were significantly lower than in the controls. The authors' method is simple and rapid; their results agree well with those of other authors who used chromatographic or electrophoretic methods.