Serum amyloid protein is high

Many people often see serum amyloid test results when they undergo physical examinations in hospitals. So what exactly is serum amyloid protein and what do the test results of serum amyloid protein represent? Generally speaking, high levels of serum amyloid protein indicate the presence of some kind of inflammation in the body, and patients need to receive anti-inflammatory treatment specifically for the condition. The most common symptoms are as follows.

Elevated serum amylase is most commonly seen in acute pancreatitis and is one of the important diagnostic indicators of acute pancreatitis. Its activity begins to increase 2 to 12 hours after onset, reaches a peak value at 12 to 72 hours, and returns to normal after 3 to 4 days. Although the degree of increase in amylase activity is not necessarily related to the degree of pancreatic damage, the greater the degree of increase, the greater the possibility of acute pancreatitis. Therefore, although amylase is still used as the preferred indicator for the diagnosis of acute pancreatitis, its specificity and sensitivity are not high enough. When acute pancreatitis is suspected, the patient's serum and urine amylase activities should be continuously monitored dynamically. The diagnosis can also be made by combining clinical conditions and other tests, such as pancreatic lipase and trypsin.

Amylase determination is also valuable for monitoring complications of acute pancreatitis such as pancreatic pseudocysts and pancreatic abscesses, in which case blood amylase activity often continues to increase. Severe acute pancreatitis can cause pleural effusion and/or peritoneal effusion, and the amylase activity in the effusion can even be more than 100 times higher than that in serum.

The diagnosis of acute pancreatitis is somewhat difficult because other acute abdominal conditions can also cause elevated amylase activity. Therefore, when acute pancreatitis is suspected, in addition to continuous monitoring of amylase, the clinical condition and other tests, such as pancreatic lipase and trypsin, should be combined for analysis to make a diagnosis.

Amylase activity may be slightly increased or decreased in chronic pancreatitis, but it does not have great diagnostic significance. In the early stages of pancreatic cancer, increased amylase activity can be seen.

Moderate or mild increase in amylase activity can also be seen in some non-pancreatic diseases, such as mumps, acute abdominal diseases (perforated peptic ulcer, after upper abdominal surgery, mechanical intestinal obstruction, mesenteric vascular disease, biliary obstruction and acute cholecystitis, etc.), taking analgesics, alcohol poisoning, poor renal function and macroamylasemia, etc., and should be paid attention to.