Abstract
Since the last publication1 on blood amylase from this laboratory, an additional number of cases have been studied, which, with one or two exceptions, have confirmed the observations already made, i. e., that blood from patients with a normal pancreas has a normal blood amylase, whereas deviations from this normal are found only in cases of proved disease of the gland. Additional observations have also been made simplifying somewhat the technic of the test. Using the viscosimetric technic as described in our original paper,1 Wakefield, McCaughan and McVicar2 recently reported observations n a series of twenty cases of tumors of the pancreas in which five howed increased values of blood amylase (12.3, 15.1, 38, 53 and 75 nits). In the case with a value of 53, a pancreatic cyst was found; on the other hand, in a case with fat necrosis, 15.1 units were found. In o